he habitat of one species of tropical fish is red coral reefs. The large majorit
ID: 73257 • Letter: H
Question
he habitat of one species of tropical fish is red coral reefs. The large majority of the fish in this population are red. A few individual fish carry a mutation that prevents the production of the red pigment; as a result these individual fish are white. The temperature of the ocean where these fish live gets warmer and warmer over a 10 year period, and as a result the coral is bleached and turns white. Use what you have learned about natural selection to explain how this bleaching event may have affected the evolution this fish population (not including possible direct effects of warmer temperatures on the fish). Include the following terms in your explanation: differential reproduction, beneficial trait, allele frequency, selection pressure, evolution.
Explanation / Answer
Answer:
In the red coral reef, the majority of the population are red, intially the dominant trait of the fish is red color, but due to mutation few fishes became white. The white color in the fishes became the dominant trait and these fishes produced all the white color offsprings, the differential reproduction is observed in the fish population, where the white color fish is more produced replacing the early red color, due to differential reproduction more offsprings of white color are produced than those of other color.
Due to the rise in the temperature over a 10 years of period, the coral is bleached and turn white. As the coral turned white, the fishes with white color trait is the more beneficial trait for the majority of the fishes. white color trait will be more beneficial for the survival of the fish. If fish is in red color, the predators can easilty identify the red color in the coral environment and may attack the fish population leading to the destruction of the population.In fish population, the allele frequency of the white color seems to be dominant in the corals and it is the more beneficial for the survival. Homozygous dominant allele or heterozygous dominant allele may be seen in the fish population.
Selective pressure is seen observed in the fish population in corals, white color in the fish seems to be advantage and red color in fish is disadvantage, the selective pressure finally led to the natural selection, as the white became dominant than red color and survived better than red, these white color fish will reproduce and transfer white color genes to next generations.
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