9B - Environmental Selection Pressures

Question 1

environmental selection pressures

Answer 1

A factor in the environment (eg. limited resources, deforestation, changing temperature, predation) that impacts an organism’s ability to survive.

Question 2

competition

Answer 2

Interactions between organisms in which both are negatively impacted when vying (competing) for the same limited resource. Can exist within or between species.

Question 3

natural selection

Answer 3

A mechanism through which organisms that are better adapted to their environment have an increased chance of surviving and passing on their alleles.

Question 4

fitness

Answer 4

A measure of how well an organism survives and reproduces in its environment.

Question 5

advantageous phenotype

Answer 5

A biochemical, physical or behavioural trait that increases an organism’s fitness in its local environment.

Question 6

selective advantage

Answer 6

An organism conferred a beneficial allele, which increases its chances of survival against a specific environmental selection pressure.

Question 7

disadvantages allele

Answer 7

An allele that encodes for a biochemical physical or behavioural trait that lowers an individual’s fitness in its local environment.

Question 8

evolution

Answer 8

The change in the genetic makeup of a population over successive generations.