Prior to 1960, Lake Washington was highly polluted and underwater visibility was limited to one or two meters. In the late 1960s, a large cleanup effort reduced pollution, resulting in visibility that increased to six to seven meters by 1976. Which of the following best explains how the change in underwater visibility affected armor plating in Lake Washington sticklebacks between 1957 and 1976?

a. Higher visibility allowed sticklebacks to increase their food consumption to make armor production
easier.
b. Higher visibility made the sticklebacks more susceptible to large-toothed predators in the lakes, giving
complete armor a selective advantage.
c. Clearer water allowed sunlight to penetrate to deeper depths, so the sticklebacks had to increase the
amount of armor to protect themselves from the resulting increase in water temperature.
d. Clearer water contained fewer of the molecular building blocks needed for armor production, so
sticklebacks showed a reduction in the amount of armor