You are given a background paragraph that describes one or more causal or qualitative relationships such as a relationship in economics or a scientific law and a story that makes use of the concepts or the relationship described in the provided paragraph. You are also given a question about the story that requires an understanding of the relationship described in the background paragraph and the story. You need to come up with an answer to the given question; the answer will be a span from either the question or the story. In order to correctly answer the given question, you need to understand the relationship mentioned in the background paragraph and should be able to use it to understand that in the story. Your answer can not consist of any word that is not mentioned in any of these: the background paragraph, the story, or the question. You can directly copy and paste a span from the story or the question while answering the given question.

Background Paragraph: Storing large volumes of data – When storing XML to either file or database, the volume of data a system produces can often exceed reasonable limits, with a number of detriments: the access times go up as more data is read, CPU load goes up as XML data takes more power to process, and storage costs go up. By storing XML data in Fast Infoset format, data volume may be reduced by as much as 80 percent. 
Story: Gary had a lot of storing to do on his computer. At 1 PM, he stored 1 Gigabyte of XML data to the main file. At 2 PM, he stored 2 Gigabytes of XML data to the main file. At 3 PM, he didn't store anything. At 4 PM, he stored 3 Gigabytes of XML data to the main file. At 5 PM, he stored 4 Gigabytes of XML data to the main file. At 6 PM, he did nothing. At 7 PM, he got dinner. At 8 PM, he stored 5 Gigabytes of XML data to the main file. He went to sleep at 9 PM and had to start again in the morning. 
Question: What hour did storage costs go up: 2 PM or 6 PM?
2 PM.

Background Paragraph: One interesting thing that has been found in plants that are consistently exposed to drought, is their ability to form a sort of "memory". In a study by Tombesi et al., they found plants who had previously been exposed to drought were able to come up with a sort of strategy to minimize water loss and decrease water use. They found that plants who were exposed to drought conditions actually changed they way the regulated their stomates and what they called "hydraulic safety margin" so as to decrease the venerability of the plant. By changing the regulation of stomata and subsequently the transpiration, plants were able to function better in situations where the availability of water decreased. 
Story: Austria had two distinct climactic regions. The eastern region was exposed to a wet climate and had thriving vegetation, while the western region was exposed to drought. 
Question: Which region had more plants with an ability to change the way the regulated their stomates?
western.

Background Paragraph: In nature, when the population size is small, there is usually plenty of food and other resources for each individual. When there is plenty of food and other resources, organisms can easily reproduce, so the birth rate is high. As the population increases, the food supply, or the supply of another necessary resource, may decrease. When necessary resources, such as food, decrease, some individuals will die. Overall, the population cannot reproduce at the same rate, so the birth rates drop. This will cause the population growth rate to decrease. 
Story: Bill studied two herds of deer for a year. He was in love with nature. He observed the large herd named Alpha inhabited an area with fewer resources. Herd Beta was a smaller one, and they grazed on an abundance of plants. 
Question: Which herd had a lower birth rate?

Alpha.