Why were physical activity and caffeine and alcohol intake the controlled variables?

any abiotic or biotic factor in an ecosystem that causes a population's size to slow or decrease is a limiting factor.

answer: decrease

a limiting factor is the one which decrease the abundance, distribution and causes extinction of the population of species in a ecosystem. here, predators including hawks, owls and snakes are the limiting factor for the population of mexican free tailed bat.   although bats are nocturnal animals as they forge for food at night these predators also may remain active during night which can decrease the population of the mexican free-tailed bats. also, these bats eat only one type of insects that are moths. the food can also be a limiting factor as all 400 members are dependent upon same type of food needs that are moths. the decrease in the moth population can cause decrease in population size of the mexican free-tailed bats.

therefore, the scenarios will most likely to decrease the population size of the mexican free-tailed bats.