Digital SAT Reading and Writing Practice Question #402

Text 1 Ecologists have long hypothesized that the introduction of apex predators into Ecosystem X would initiate a classic top-down trophic cascade. According to this model, the predators would drastically reduce the population of large foraging herbivores. Relieved of intense grazing pressure, the indigenous flora would rapidly recover, restoring the ecosystem's historical biodiversity. Text 2 A recent ten-year study of Ecosystem X following the reintroduction of native wolves yielded surprising data. While indigenous flora did indeed see a spectacular recovery, longitudinal tracking of the primary herbivore species revealed that their overall population size remained statistically identical to pre-wolf levels. Instead of declining, the herbivores simply altered their behavior, actively avoiding the open valleys where they were highly vulnerable to wolf predation and confining their grazing to densely forested perimeters. Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the specific mechanism of floral recovery proposed in Text 1?