5.2 Natural Selection

Question 1

Natural Selection

Answer 1

Natural selection is a response to these conditions:

There is genetic (inheritable variation within a population (caused by mutations, meiosis, and sexual reproduction)
There is competition for survival (species tend to produce more offspring than the environment can support).
Environmental selection pressures give rise to different rates of production.
Organism with beneficial traits are more likely to reproduce.
Over generations, these beneficial traits have become more common (evolution= a change in allele frequency in a gene pool)

Question 2

Key components to the process of natural selection are

Answer 2

ICE AGE
Inherited Variation
Competition
Environmental Selection
Adaptations
Genotype frequency changes
Evolution occurs.

Question 3

Examples of environmental selection pressures include:

Answer 3

PANDAS
Predator/ prey dynamics
Abiotic factores (e.g Climate)
Nutrient supply (food source)
Diseases/ pathogens
Available resources (e.g Light)
Space requirements (habitat)

Question 4

Adaptations

Answer 4

Adaptations are traits that make an individual suited to its environment and way of life.
- Adaptations can structural, behavioral, physiological, biochemical or developmental.

Adaptive Radiation is when one species is spread out over different niches and causes rapid diversification of the original ancestral line. (Finches on Daphne Major)

Question 5

Examples of evolution

Answer 5

Certain types of bacteria have developed antibiotic resistance.

Pepper moths and the industrial revolution of England. (lichens)