1. Why are populations with low genetic variation more vulnerable to changing environmental conditions than diverse populations?
2. What are the sources of genetic variation?
3. Why is there little or no genetic variation in the the “lumper” potato variety?
4. Why does planting genetically uniform crops increase the risk of “losing it all” when environmental variables change?
1. because if there is little variation in a species and there is an enviornmental change, the species will not have any individuals more suited for the new enviornment, so if the enviornment has not changed in their favor, they can become extinct.2. mutations .3. there is no variation in the lumper potato variety because they reproduce asexually, through vegatative propagation, which causes all the offspring to be exactly the same as the parent and as each other. 4. planting cloned crops can be bad if there is an enviornmental change because all the organisms are the same, so if the enviornmet changes for the worse , no organisms will be more fit for the enviornment, and all the crops will die
ReplyDelete1. Why are populations with low genetic variation more vulnerable to changing environmental conditions than diverse populations?
ReplyDeletePopulations with low genetic variation are more vulnerable to changing environmental conditions than diverse populations because they do not have a good ability to adapt to different surroundings.
2. What are the sources of genetic variation?
The sources of genetic variation are mutations and genetic shuffling/crossing over, which occurs during Prophase I of meiosis.
3. Why is there little or no genetic variation in the “lumper” potato variety?
There is little or no genetic variation in the "lumper" potato variety because they produced by vegetative propagation, a form of asexual reproduction, thus making all the offspring of the "lumper" potato generation identical. This creates no genetic variation whatsoever.
4. Why does planting genetically uniform crops increase the risk of “losing it all” when environmental variables change?
Planting genetically uniform crops increases the risk of "losing it all" when environmental variables change because when these environmental conditions change, these crops, because of their genetic uniformity and low variation, will not have the ability to adapt well to say, a potato disease, in which case, many will die.
what is blight?
ReplyDelete1. Genetic variety allows species to adapt to a changing environment. However, in a population with low genetic variation may have a difficult time adapting because it is possible that the genes cauterized, as “fit” in the new environment are not present in the species.
ReplyDelete2. The two main sources of genetic variation are genetic shuffling and crossing over in meiosis and mutations.
3. As stated in the article the farmers used vegetative propagation to “clone” the lumper potato. This resulted in a species of potato that is identical with no genetic variation.
4. Producing cloned crops results in a species with no genetic variation and without this crucial variation the population will be unable to adapt when their environment changes. Unfortunately in the 1840s when the potato disease swept through Ireland the Irish people did “lose it all” and it resulted in a tragic devastation of the country.