A table question with totals and percentages tests whether you can connect numbers to the results described in a text. Read the question, then use the text to find which animals removed acorns in each row. Check the headings to find what each percentage is out of. To find counts, divide each percentage by 100 and multiply by its total. Check each comparison separately, because a statement can start with a true fact and still reach a wrong conclusion.
Hints
- Hint 1
Use the sentence about the camera recordings to check which animal removed acorns in each exclusion treatment.
- Hint 2
Check which acorns the percentages describe in the last column’s heading. What total should each rate apply to?
- Hint 3
Calculate a seedling count for each row by multiplying the removal total by the establishment percentage as a decimal. How do those counts compare?
Step-by-step
Match the animals, then count seedlings
Step 1Find who removed the acorns
The cameras found nearly all removals in the rodent-exclusion plots were by jays, while removals with jays excluded were almost all by mice. Which animals are we comparing? Rodent exclusion shows mostly jays, and jay exclusion shows mostly mice, while the no-exclusion row allows both animals to remove acorns.
- Step 2
Find what each percentage is out of
The researchers tracked which removed acorns had produced established seedlings, and the last column reports the percentage that did so. What is each percentage out of? Each rate applies to that row’s removal total, not the 500 originally supplied to each plot. Since those totals differ, we need seedling counts as well as percentages.
- Step 3
Calculate the seedling counts
To find how many acorns produced established seedlings after one growing season, multiply removals by the establishment percentage as a decimal. No exclusion gives 462 × 0.058 ≈ 26.8, and rodent exclusion gives 291 × 0.092 ≈ 26.8. Jay exclusion gives 354 × 0.025 ≈ 8.9. These are about 27, 27, and 9 seedlings, in table order.
- Step 4
Compare removals and seedlings
How does the jay-dominated row compare with the row allowing both animals? Its 291 removals are fewer than 462, yet its higher establishment rate brings the seedling count to nearly the same total. That supports nearly as many seedlings from fewer removals, showing why an acorn’s removal does not necessarily contribute to oak recruitment. Choice A.