Single correct option
Restoration ecologists increasingly distinguish between recreating an ecosystem's appearance and recreating its function. A wetland replanted with the right species in the right visual arrangement can look, to a casual observer, indistinguishable from an undisturbed one, yet still fail to filter water, buffer floods, or support the food web it superficially resembles, if the underlying hydrology, soil microbiology, or species interactions were not also restored. The lesson driving current practice is that ecological restoration succeeds or fails on criteria largely invisible to the eye, which is precisely why it is so often, and so easily, mistaken for having already succeeded.
Summarise the paragraph in one sentence.
Summarise the paragraph in one sentence.
- A. Ecological restoration is now considered a failed discipline because replanted wetlands never resemble undisturbed ones.
- B. Restoration ecologists focus exclusively on the visual appearance of an ecosystem, since function is impossible to measure reliably.
- C. A restored ecosystem may look convincing yet lack the underlying functional processes, such as hydrology and species interactions, that determine true restoration success, making failure easy to overlook.
- D. Soil microbiology is the single most important factor determining whether a wetland restoration project succeeds.
Show answer and solution
Answer: (C) A restored ecosystem may look convincing yet lack the underlying functional processes, such as hydrology and species interactions, that determine true restoration success, making failure easy to overlook.
The paragraph's point is that visual similarity and functional restoration are distinct, and that success depends on invisible functional criteria that are easily mistaken for already being met. Option 3 captures exactly this. Option 1 is an overreach not stated in the paragraph. Option 2 inverts the paragraph's actual claim (function, not appearance, is what matters). Option 4 singles out one example (soil microbiology) as 'the single most important factor', which the paragraph never ranks that way — it lists it merely as one of several possible underlying factors.
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