Question

A coastal area that once supported a thriving fishing industry is overfished. The number of species found living in the marine ecosystem decreases. Which of these activities is most likely to increase the natural biodiversity in the area?

Answer 1

Building artificial reefs and limiting fishing activity

Step-by-step explanation:

• Building artificial reefs and limiting fishing activity
• Introducing non-native species to fill unoccupied habitats and banning fishing
• Building artificial reefs and increasing fishing activity
• Eliminating non-native species and encouraging fishing for large predatory fish

The only activity that can successfully increase the natural biodiversity of fishes in the area would be building artificial reefs and limiting fishing activities.

The building of artificial reefs would create several microhabitats for fishes to thrive while limiting fishing activities would ensure that the rate of thriving or multiplication of fishes far outweighs the rate fishes are being removed from the area. Both actions will work synergistically to increase the natural biodiversity of fishes in the area.

The introduction of non-native species can have a negative consequence for the area as non-native species have a history of reducing biodiversity by outcompeting the native species and becoming invasive.

Building artificial reefs and increasing fishing activities would be counterproductive. While artificial reefs can increase the thriving of fishes, increasing fishing activities would take away the gains of the artificial reefs.

Eliminating non-native species and encouraging fishing for large predatory fish will disrupt the ecological balance of the area and might have negative effects on biodiversity.