Elkhorn Coral Mystery Lab Report

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Solving the Elkhorn Coral Mystery with the Scientific Method The epidemic of the white pox disease in coral species was terrible. The way the scientists solved this mystery is the use of the Scientific Method. First the team had make an observation, next was to conduct the experiment, and lastly is too draw conclusions. I am going to tell you three out of the eight steps to the scientific method that the team of scientists used to determine that the white pox disease was the cause of the sudden demise of the Elkhorn coral. The first step in this process was to make an observation. In order to do this you have to be out in the field of work. The observation that was made in this predicament is that more than half of all corals were dying. Paragraph 4, it states, ““Between 1996 and 2012, more than half of all corals in the Florida Keys alone had died”, says Porter.” What the author is elaborating is that half of a population of sea life has died and other marine life depended on those organisms. “The greatest decline was in Elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata). From the authors point of view this me4ans that this particularly species was hit the hardest. …show more content…

What it means to conduct an experiment is a test under controlled conditions that is made to demonstrate a known truth, to examine the validity of a hypothesis, or to determine the efficacy of something previously untried. The text says, in paragraph 15, “The scientists exposed fragments of Elkhorn coral to the strain found in humans to find out if it would cause the disease.” What the author is trying to say is that to test their theory on if that the disease was a pathogenically passed disease they had to test it to see if this statement was

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