Any help would be great thanks. A scientist wants to the effects of natural sele

Question

Any help would be great thanks.

A scientist wants to the effects of natural selection on grass height, which is a heritable trait. She sets up an experiment where two pastures are arranged side-by-side. Both pastures are the same size with the same type of soil and both receive the same amount of fertilizer and water. One pasture receives a herd of cattle that are allowed to over-graze that pasture for a year, while the other pasture does not. At the end of the experiment seeds from grasses taken out of each pasture are planted, and allowed to grow for two months in a laboratory, then the average heights of the resulting grass plants associated with each pasture are to be measured. (1) Create a hypothesis that accounts for the ideas of natural selection to explain what this researcher will see in terms of average grass plant height that results from the seeds taken from each pasture. (2) Then explain the basis for your hypothesis while correctly including the following terms in your explanation: differential reproduction, beneficial trait, allele frequency, and selection pressure.

Explanation / Answer

Answer:

From the above question, scientist want to study about the effect of the natural selection on grass height. The height of the grass is a heritable trait, as it is a heritable trait , the trait "height of grass" should pass to the next generation.

1) The seeds taken from the two pastures will have the same height, because grazing by cattle will not show any effect on the heritable trait " grass height".If the trait is dominant then large size grass may be grown and if trait is recessive, then short size of the grass may be grown.

2) As discussed, heritable trait play a role on grass height rather than the natural selection. natural selection is a differential reproduction, which is not observed in this particular case. The survival of the fittest is a main criteria in natural selection or differential reproduction. The grass or grass seeds with beneficial trait will grow in the next generation. Selection pressure is observed in organisms evolved through the natural selection, as natural selection is not controlling the height of grass seeds, the selection pressure is not observed. The allele freqeuency depend on the type of heritable trait, such as dominant and recessive type.

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