Unpolluted Forest Case Study

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The selection strength was higher in the unpolluted forest because the difference between relative fitness of the fittest moths and the least fit moths was higher (0.66). Selection strength is how strong the environment is pressuring evolution. In this case, the unpolluted forest is pressurizing evolution more, which means the dark moths will survive longer because through evolution they will adapt to the habitat and start turning lighter and hide better from predators, and the longer they survive the more they can reproduce. It is the other way around in the polluted forest. Since the selection strength is lower it is not pressurizing evolution as much, so the light moths won’t adapt as fast and will still be vulnerable to predators because they stand out so much. Because …show more content…

This is wrong because an organism doesn’t have to have the best fitness or survive the longest to pass on a gene successfully to the offspring. Usually nature chooses the traits to pass on to offspring, it passes traits that will be beneficial to the organism for survival. A true statement would be; natural selection can fully be explained by how successful the genes are passed to the offspring.

b) This statement is true. Variation is necessary for natural selection to occur because natural selection has to do with the difference in traits. Without variation all the generations would stay the same and natural selection would not happen. The changes in phenotype in the next generation is because of the changes in frequency of alleles (or variation).

c) This statement is also true. Adaptation is defined as a trait that increases the survival in a particular environment. For example, adaption can happen if a plant is in a cold habitat where there is less precipitation, it can adapt to those circumstances by growing shorter to avoid cold winds and growing longer roots to get more water. The plant has adapted to survive in the conditions in its