A researcher is testing the hypothesis that oak trees girdled by Oriental Bittersweetproduce fewer acorns than unaffected trees. She locates 30 pin oaks and identifies them as being either exploited or free of Bittersweet vines. She also measures trunk diameter at breast height (DBH). Aftercontrolling for tree size, an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) testing estimated acorn production between the two groups yields a P-value of 0.09.What would be the most appropriate conclusionfrom these results?

a. Fail to reject the Null Hypothesis(H₀: Bittersweet does not reduce oak fecundity).

b. Rejectthe Null Hypothesisand supportH_A: Bittersweet reduces oak fecundity.

c. Fail torejectthe Null Hypothesis(H₀:Oak trees and Bittersweet do not co-occur).

d. Reject the Null Hypothesisand supportH_A:Bittersweet does not reduce oak fecundity.