A flood hit an area, destroying much of the surrounding ecosystem. One animal species survived the flood, but all of its competitors were eliminated. Despite the reduced competition and an abundance of other resources, there was no substantial growth recorded in the population of the surviving species. What are the plausible reasons for this lack of population growth? A: changes in abiotic factors
B: new competition from nonnative animals displaced by the flood
C: a decrease in predators
D: an increase in available living space
E: lack of available mates after the flood

WORTH 20 POINTS

part 1: the half-life of the element is 22 years.

part 2: it will take 132.02 year for the sample to decay from 308.0 g to 4.8125 g.

explanation:

part 1: there are two ways to determine the half life time.

first way: the half life time can be determined directly from its definition as it is the time required for the sample to decay to its half concentration.

from the data the initial concentration was 45.0 g and decayed to its half value (22.5 g) in 22.0 years.

second way: the radio active decay is considered first order reaction so we can use the laws of first order reactions.

k = (1/t) ln (a/a-x), where k is the rate constant of the reaction,

t is the time of the reaction

a is the initial concentration of the reactant

a-x is the remaining concentration at time (t)

a = 45.0 g the initial concentration at t = 0 year.

at t = 22 year, a-x = 22.5 g

then k = (1/22 year) ln (45.0 g/ 22.5 g) = 0.0315 year-1.

the half-life time (t1/2) = ln 2/ k = 0.693/ k =0.693/ 0.0315 = 22 years.

part 2:

using the same law k = (1/t) ln (a/a-x),

using the given data; a = 308.0 g and a-x = 4.8125 g and the calculated k from the part 1 (k = 0.0315 year-1)

t = (1/k) ln (a/a-x) = (1/0.0315) ln (308.0/ 4.8125) = 132.02 years