Adaptations

Question 1

How do organisms adapt to their environment over time? How long does this take?

Answer 1

Organisms adapt to their environment over time, both in short and long term scales, via incremental changes at the genetic level

Question 2

what are the two types of environmental changes? what are the potential consequences?

Answer 2

environmental changes, either sudden or gradual, may threaten a species’ survival

Question 3

how do species respond to environmental changes that threaten their survival?

Answer 3

they alter behaviors, move or perish

Question 4

what is genetic diversity?

Answer 4

variability in genomes of individuals

Question 5

do all populations have genetic diversity?

Answer 5

all populations have some genetic diversity

Question 6

why does genetic diversity exist?

Answer 6

random mutations while DNA is being copied create new traits
crossing over in parent chromosomes creates new combinations of genes (and therefore traits)

Question 7

what is an adaptation?

Answer 7

a new trait that increases an organism’s fitness

Question 8

what is fitness?

Answer 8

an organism’s ability to survive and reproduce

Question 9

what is natural selection?

Answer 9

organisms that are better adapted to their environment survive and reproduce more offspring

Question 10

how does natural selection work?

Answer 10

individuals with adaptations pass them on to offspring and individuals without adaptations die off, which leads to the entire population having the adaptation over time (this is evolution; individuals don’t evolve, populations do as the prevalence of a trait increases)

Question 11

what is selective pressure/force?

Answer 11

the environmental condition that kills individuals without the adaptation

Question 12

what determines which traits are adaptations? (helpful vs hurtful)

Answer 12

the environment an organism lives in

Question 13

how do traits change as environments change? give example

Answer 13

different traits may become adaptations and old traits may become disadvantages
ex. a drought can kill off finches with smaller beaks, making larger beaks for cracking harder seeds an adaptation (daphne major island in the galapagos)

Question 14

the more rapidly an environment changes, the less likely:

Answer 14

a species in the environment will be able to adapt to those changes

Question 15

if the pace of environmental change is too rapid, many species will:

Answer 15

migrate out of the environment or die-off completely

Question 16

what is an example of environmental change occurring too quickly for species to adapt?

Answer 16

if the ocean warms too quickly, many species of fish may not be able to migrate before they run out of oxygen and suffocate

Question 17

the more genetic diversity in a population, the better they are able to:
because:

Answer 17

adapt to environmental change
there is a higher chance that some individuals have good mutations

Question 18

the longer the lifespan of an organism, the slower:

Answer 18

the rate of evolution

Question 19

what is an example of lifespan affecting the rate of evolution?

Answer 19

bacteria and viruses can adapt and evolve in days while human evolution takes thousands to millions of years (which means that humans are more likely to die in the event of rapid environmental change)