Ecologists are studying the fire coral population in a 280-square-kilometer area on the great barrier reef. fire corals cannot move from one location to another in their environment.

which of the following methods is most appropriate for the ecologists to use to determine the size of the fire coral population?

counting all the fire corals in the total area to determine the precise number of individuals in the population

a

determining the size of the fire coral population in a quadrat sample area and using it to estimate the overall population size

b

using a mark and recapture method to estimate the overall population size

c

tagging individual fire corals and returning the following year to count how many are still in the same area