Explain the similarities and differences between artificial and natural selection, and one example of where artificial selection might be useful for climate change, and one example where artificial selection might be harmful.
The similarity of natural selection to artificial selection lies in their purposeful “selection” that allows specific traits to be retained with the aim of ensuring the perpetuation of a specific genetic drift across generations. The difference in the two lies in their occurrence; natural selection occurs naturally, thus allowing the organism with the most adaptable traits to variants like temperature, weather or gain in nutrition to survive while the rest to die off. In artificial selection, human beings, through advancing technologies, select those specific traits that they want to be retained in an organism.
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How does random vs non- random selection affect the outcomes?
In random selection, the outcomes are a true representative of the whole population, with each ‘selection’ having an equal chance of being selected, respective of its characters. In non-random selection, the outcomes are conveniently selected numerically, thus not according every member of the population an equal chance of being selected.
Which of the 6 scenarios do you think would be least resilient to change, when the evolutionary pressure is artificial (i.e. human) selection? Most resilient? Do you foresee any local extinctions?
The final (6th scenario) would be the least resilient to change due to the concentration of specific gene trait that is only purposed to address the specific artificial concern. In comparison with the other scenarios, the 6th scenario fails to accommodate the importance of gene interaction that naturally allows an organism to adapt to specific environmental changes.
The most resilient scenario would be the 5th scenario as it incorporates more organisms (10 per variant) with more gene variants (6 in total). In doing this, the chosen outcomes represent a more variant sample that allows for successful gene interaction which translates to improved resilience to any adverse change.
If you took the beads you extracted from bowl 1 and imagined that instead of experiencing random changes in genetics, the ones you extracted were randomly picked up by a fierce wind and blown to a nearby island, would this new group be similar in trait variance composition to the population of conspecifics that were not blown away (remaining individuals on the source island/your bowl)?
Given time, the new group blown on an island would possess different trait variance from the conspecifics not blown away, as the assumption is that the island has different factors that would demand ‘adaption.’ For instance, the soil pH or the environmental elements of the island would force the new group to genetically modify itself as an adaptability trait to these new changes.
Over a long period of time might this new group be unable to reproduce in the wild with members of the original group? If so, this would be speciation. Explain this to your student/audience.
The development of new and unique characteristics by this new group means the development of a new species, i.e. speciation, hence inability to reproduce with the old/wild members of the original species.
