Question

Hemlocks are a common type of tree in the northern forests of the United States. In studying one forest, a forester noticed that mature hemlocks were abundant but there were very few young hemlocks. She wondered why there were so few young hemlocks. By reading the records that other foresters in that area had kept, she learned that the population of deer living in the forest had doubled in the last five years. By reading studies on forests that other scientists had performed, she also learned that deer in similar forests like to eat young hemlocks and the young trees of other species. To test her hypothesis, the forester set up an experiment. She placed fencing around a group of 15 young hemlocks to prevent deer from eating them. She left a group of 15 young trees with no fencing around them. Each day, she examined the trees for evidence that deer had been eating their twigs and branches and counted the number of trees with visible bite marks. Which example is the control group for this experiment?

Answer 1

The control group is the 15 young hemlocks trees with fencing around them to prevent deer from eating them.

Step-by-step explanation:

An experiment is designed to test one or more hypotheses. For that, you need control and treatment groups. The control group is the non-effect group, it is the one from which you compare results from the treatment group. On the other hand, the treatment group is the effect group, it is the one that will be exposed to the "thing" that you want to test the effect of. Because you want to evaluate the impact of deers on the young hemlocks trees, the control should exclude deers.

In this case:

Hypothesis: Because deers eat young hemlocks trees and the population of deer had doubled in the last five years, the mature hemlocks trees are more abundant than the young hemlocks trees.

Control: group of 15 young hemlocks trees with fencing around them to prevent deer from eating them.

Treatment: a group of 15 young hemlocks trees with no fencing around them to permit deer eating them.