Question

Barnacles are crustaceans that attach themselves to rocks, shells, or other objects in marine habitats. An ecologist who wants to estimate the population of a species of barnacle living along the mid-Atlantic coast would most likely

	capture, mark, and release a number of individuals at the beginning and end of a specific period, then use the mark–recapture equation to estimate the total population size.
	count all individuals of a local sample of the species and check back at given intervals to see if the number changes.
	count individuals within quadrats at selected areas throughout the barnacles' range and extrapolate the results to the whole population.
	perform DNA analysis on a sample group to determine how many unique individuals there might be in the overall population.
	send a team of marine biologists to count every individual of the species.

Answer 1

Answer. Count individuals within quadrants at selected areas...... Whole population.

A quadrat is a squarish area of specific size say 1 X 1 metre that is used to count the number of organisms in it. We can suppose how many quadrants will be there in the given area, depending upon the size of the quadrat which we have taken initially. Thus, multiplying the number of organisms to the total number of quadrat that can occur in that area gives the total number of organisms in that area.