SAT Inferences Question

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 Integrity (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?