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: A plant's first line of defense against abiotic stress is in its roots. If the soil holding the plant is healthy and biologically diverse, the plant will have a higher chance of surviving stressful conditions.The plant responses to stress are dependent on the tissue or organ affected by the stress. For example, transcriptional responses to stress are tissue or cell specific in roots and are quite different depending on the stress involved.One of the primary responses to abiotic stress such as high salinity is the disruption of the Na+/K+ ratio in the cytoplasm of the plant cell. High concentrations of Na+, for example, can decrease the capacity for the plant to take up water and also alter enzyme and transporter functions. Evolved adaptations to efficiently restore cellular ion homeostasis has led to a wide variety of stress tolerant plants.Facilitation, or the positive interactions between different species of plants, is an intricate web of association in a natural environment. It is how plants work together. In areas of high stress, the level of facilitation is especially high as well. This could possibly be because the plants need a stronger network to survive in a harsher environment, so their interactions between species, such as cross-pollination or mutualistic actions, become more common to cope with the severity of their habitat.Plants also adapt very differently from one another, even from a plant living in the same area. When a group of different plant species was prompted by a variety of different stress signals, such as drought or cold, each plant responded uniquely. Hardly any of the responses were similar, even though the plants had become accustomed to exactly the same home environment.Rice (Oryza sativa) is a classic example. Rice is a staple food throughout the world, especially in China and India. Rice plants experience different types of abiotic stresses, like drought and high salinity. These stress conditions have a negative impact on rice production. Genetic diversity has been studied among several rice varieties with different genotypes using molecular markers. 
Story: Danny owned two parcels of land. parcel A had a soil with high salinity levels, while parcel B had a rich and healthy soil. 
Question: Which parcel had more plants which presented a disruption in the Na+/K+ ratio in the cytoplasm of the plant cell?
parcel B.

Background Paragraph: Air pollution is harmful to human beings and other living things. About 22 million people die from air pollution each year. Breathing polluted air increases the risk of developing lung diseases such as asthma and lung cancer. Breathing bad air also increases the chances of dying from other diseases. Children are most likely to be affected by air pollution. That’s because their lungs are still developing and growing. Children also take in more air for their size than adults do. Some air pollutants damage the environment as well as the health of living things. The type of damage depends on the pollutant. Air pollution can also harm the environment. 
Story: Michael and Thomas are brothers whose careers have taken them to different cities. Michael lives in Beijing, where the levels of air pollution are fairly high due to the extensive manufacturing industry. Thomas, on the other hand, lives in Seattle, which has low levels of air pollution thanks to government initiatives and culture attitudes in the region. 
Question: Who has a higher risk of developing asthma?
Michael.

Background Paragraph: Groundwater salinization compromises buffering properties. Vegetation clearance, along with irrigation, causes serious issues. Irrigation increases the water table and mobilizes salts, and vegetation clearance allows it to come in contact with water habitats and vegetation. This stresses species not adapted to high salinity. High levels of salinity reduces water uptake in plants, by causing stomatal closure, reducing photosynthesis. Forests undergo decline in areas of high salinity and shallow groundwater depths because these conditions make them more susceptible to droughts. Forests undergo decline in areas of high salinity and shallow groundwater depths making them more susceptible to droughts. 
Story: Two villages were situated on different sides of the hill. Each village has its own approach to agriculture. East village decided to clear the land, by felling many trees and bushes, and set up a vast irrigation system. West village too a more natural approach to food production and applied the edible forest method, and all the permaculture principles over the years. 
Question: Which village had more areas of shallow groundwater?

East.