Which "alternate" hypothesis might also explain industrial melanism?

Question

A.  Dark moths are more resistant to the toxic effects of pollution than light moths.
B.  Dark moths emigrate out of polluted areas to escape the pollution.
C.  Pollution kills important tree species that peppered moths depend on for egg laying.
D.  Because dark moths absorb more heat, they are more active and better able to avoid bird predation.
E.  Birds used the marks that Kettlewell placed on the moths when he released them to help them find and capture the moths.

Clarify Question
What is the key concept addressed by the question?
What type of thinking is required?

  Gather Content
What do you already know about natural selection? What other information is related to the question?

  Choose Answer
Given what you now know, what information is most likely to produce the correct answer?

  Reflect on Process
Did your problem-solving process lead you to the correct answer? If not, where did the process break down or lead you astray? How can you revise your approach to produce a more desirable result?

Answer 1

A.  Dark moths are more resistant to the toxic effects of pollution than light moths.

Clarify Question
What is the key concept addressed by the question?
        · The question stem is asking you to identify which alternative hypothesis also explains why moths wing color frequencies changed as woodland pollution levels changed.
What type of thinking is required?
        · You are being asked to take what you already know and use, or apply, it to how natural selection will influence the moth color phenotypic frequencies.

  Gather Content
What do you already know about natural selection? What other information is related to the question?
        · Natural selection is a method by which organisms can evolve. A valid alternative hypothesis will provide a logical explanation for the observed phenomenon, industrial melanism.

  Choose Answer
Given what you now know, what information is most likely to produce the correct answer?
        · If dark moths emigrated, we would expect the preponderance of this morph to decrease, not increase. If the tree species was killed by pollution, then both moth morphs would be equally affected. There is no evidence that pollution increased heat, nor is there evidence that black moths absorb more heat and are subsequently more active. In any case, moths avoid predation by cryptic, hiding behavior, not by fleeing from their predators. Finally, Kettlewell placed the marks under the moths' wings and they were thus undetectable by the birds.

  Reflect on Process
Did your problem-solving process lead you to the correct answer? If not, where did the process break down or lead you astray? How can you revise your approach to produce a more desirable result?
        · Answering this question correctly depended on your ability to use natural selection in a new situation¼ If you got an incorrect answer, did you remember that natural selection favors one morph over another, or that pollution affects morph frequency by selecting for the more cryptic morph? Did you have trouble extending natural selection to determine the correct answer?