Scientists conducted an experiment to investigate the effectiveness of treating water from storage dams with UV radiation - HSC - SSCE Biology - Question 16 - 2021 - Paper 1

Based on the data collected from the experiment, we observe the following:

• At a UV dose of 0 ml/cm², there were 365 bacterial colonies counted, indicating high bacterial presence.
• As the UV dose increased to 1 ml/cm², the number of colonies drastically decreased to 55.
• Finally, at a UV dose of 6 ml/cm², only 2 colonies were counted, suggesting that higher doses of UV radiation significantly reduce bacterial growth.

Thus, we can conclude that exposure to UV radiation inhibits the reproduction of bacteria. Therefore, option C is the correct answer.