The passage most strongly suggests that the author agrees with which of the following?

Soil salinization―the process by which soil acquires excess soluble salt, adversely affecting pasture or crop growth―is regarded as Australia’s most serious environmental problem. Cope, whose 1958 investigation is considered the earliest survey of salt-affected areas in Victoria, hypothesized that surplus rainwater mobilized soluble salt stored in the permeable layer of soil, causing it to accumulate above an impermeable layer and then discharge downslope or onto a valley floor. In the late 1970s, however, Jenkin identified saline water underground as the main and immediate (though not ultimate) source of the salt, and hypothesized that the spread of salinity resulted from a rise in that groundwater. He attributed the rise to a decrease in coverage by water-absorbing trees and other vegetation at some ill-defined point in Australia’s post-settlement history.

However, more-recent research suggests there was no rise in post-settlement groundwater levels. Furthermore, soil salinity probably antedated European settlement: early cartographic evidence indicates that some streams were saline when Europeans arrived. Dahlhaus suggests that salt accumulation resulted from marine incursions several million years ago, when parts of Victoria may have been submerged―as well as from transport of salt from the sea by wind and rain. Dahlhaus also notes that various minerals dissolved in groundwater by weathering may have produced salt.

The passage most strongly suggests that the author agrees with which of the following?
A . There was not significantly less coverage by trees and other vegetation in Victoria after European immigrant settlement than before it.
B . Average groundwater levels in Victoria probably increased after European immigrant settlement.
C . Dahlhaus’s examination of early cartographic evidence convinced him that European immigrant settlement was a significant factor contributing to soil salinity in Victoria.
D . The impact of European immigrant settlement on the environment in Victoria does not explain soil salinity there.
E . The main source of soil salinity in Victoria has been wind and rain transporting salt from the sea.

View Answer

Answer: D