Vera is an ecologist who studies the change in the bear population of Siberia over time. The relationship between the elapsed time, t, in years, since Vera began studying the population, and the total number of bears, N(t), is modeled by the function:

Explanation:

The concrete question and the function or data were omitted.

I found the complete question on the internet. Please, find attached the picture with the complete question

You must complete the  sentence about the yearly rate of change of the bear population, telling whether it grows or shrinks and by what factor.

Thus, the goal is to interpret the rate of change in an exponential model.

The exponential model is:

Let's analyze that function.

When t = 0, (2/3)⁰ = 1 and N(0) = 2,187 × 1 = 2,187

Thus, the population of bears starts with 2,187 individuals.

For t = 1, the population will be N(1) = 2,187 × (2/3).

For t = 2, the population will be N(2) = 2,187 × (2/3)²

And so on, every year the population of bears is multiplied by a factor of 2/3.

Since, 2/3 is less than 1, every year the population will be decreasing (decaying), by a factor of 2/3.

Thus, the answer, i.e. the complete sentence, is:

Every year, the bear population    shrinks    by a factor of    2/3   .