In 2010, an area in the Gulf of Mexico was the site of the worst oil spill in United States history. The Deepwater Horizon oil rig caught fire, sank, and spilled over 200 million gallons of oil into the surrounding waters. Prior to this event, the leaking of oil into the Prince William Sound from the Exxon Valdez off the coast of Alaska in 1989 was the worst oil spill in US history. In order to assess the damage done to the local ecosystems in the Gulf of Mexico, how would biologists best organize the data?
A) Biologists would compare the migration patterns of shore birds from 2010, 2011, and 2012.
B) Biologists would compare the average water temperatures of the Gulf coast before and after the oil spill.
C) Biologists would track the number of species and their relative abundance in the Gulf coast region in 2009, 2010, and 2011.
D) Biologists would compare the biodiversity of the gulf coastal regions in 2011 to the biodiversity of the Alaskan coastal regions in 1990, after each of the oil spill events.