Which choice most logically completes the text?

|Question 12Verbal

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Chelsea Wood et al. tracked temperature-driven changes in the abundance of Gonocerca sp. (a complex life cycle parasite, or CLP, that requires three host species throughout its life cycle), Gyrodactylus sp. (a directly transmitted parasite, which requires only one host species), and 83 other parasite taxa found on eight fish species. CLPs are transmitted when an infected host is ingested by an individual of another species, typically shielding CLPs from the external environment, whereas directly transmitted parasites are exposed to external conditions during transmission. However, Wood et al. found that three-host CLP abundance decreased as sea temperatures rose, whereas directly transmitted parasite abundance was largely stable, suggesting that

CLPs primarily transmitted by ingestion were less dependent on host species adversely affected by warming temperatures than were CLPs that use other transmission strategies.

any advantages that the transmission strategy used by three-host CLPs may have conferred did not completely offset the negative effects of other temperature-driven factors on CLP abundance.

directly transmitted parasites identified in the study were more likely to use transmission strategies that shield them from warming temperatures than were three-host CLPs.

as the number of host species involved in a parasite's transmission increases, the parasite is better protected against rising temperatures.