Which finding, if true, would most directly challenge the researchers…

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Baltimore, Maryland, has installed shoreline-hardening structures-mainly jetties—along 71% of its shoreline to protect infrastructure from wave erosion and other hazards. To evaluate the responses of waterbirds at sites in the Chesapeake Bay on the US East Coast to shoreline hardening and other landscape alterations, Diann Prosser et al. surveyed waterbird communities consisting of sixty-four species, including the tundra swan and the great blue heron. Utilizing the Index of Waterbird Community Integiity (IWCI), on which a low score corresponds to low community integrity, the researchers concluded that shoreline hardening more negatively affects waterbirds than does land development for uses such as housing or agriculture.

Which finding, if true, would most directly challenge the researchers' conclusion?

Waterbird communities at Margothy, a site with a relatively low percentage of developed land and a relatively high percentage of hardened shoreline, had lower average IWCI scores than did waterbird communities at Back River, a site with a higher percentage of developed land and a lower percentage of hardened shoreline.

Waterbird communities at Stony and Curtis, two sites with relatively high percentages of developed land and hardened shoreline, had similar IWCI scores, whereas waterbird communities at Ware and Honga, two sites with relatively low percentages of developed land and hardened shoreline, had widely differing IWCI scores.

Waterbird communities at Mill, a site with a relatively low percentage of developed land and a relatively high percentage of hardened shoreline, had higher average IWCI scores than did waterbird communities at Langford, a ste with a higher percentage of developed land and a lower percentage of hardened shoreline.

Waterbird communities at Old Road, a site with a relatively high percentage of developed land and hardened shoreline, had lower average IWCI scores than did waterbird communities at Onancock, a site with a relatively low percentage of developed land and hardened shoreline.