Malaria is a leading cause of infectious disease and death worldwide. It is also a popular example of a vector-borne disease that could be greatly affected by the influence of climate change. The scatterplot shows total precipitation (in mm) in select cities in West Africa on the x axis and the percent of people who tested positive for malaria in the select cities on the y axis in 2013. Precipitation is the variable

independent and explanatory

Step-by-step explanation:

In a study, an independent variable may be defined as the variable that does not affect the other variables in the study when it is changed. Thus a variable is said to be independent when it is not affected by the any other variable in the study.

Whereas, an explanatory variable can be manipulated or changed by the experimenter. It is the variable that is not independent for certain variables.

Thus in the context, the scatterplot showing the total precipitation and the percent of the people who tested positive for the malaria test. The precipitation from the graph is the independent as well as the explanatory variable.