Ap Bio Wisconsin Fast Plants Essay

Observing the Wisconsin Fast-Plants was a monitoring experiment, we were just observers to the natural life cycle of these plants, and we did not influence their growth in any way that would not occur naturally. We took notes and observations about each stage of

This relates back to the lab because in our lab we tested the ability of the finches beaks, small and large, to break small and large seeds. Darwin believed that based on the environment and food supply some finches, depending on their beak size and shape, were more likely to survive. For example, if finches lived on island that only consisted of large seeds, the finches with bigger beaks would be able to eat the bigger seeds. Where as the finches with smaller beaks would have more difficulty cracking the bigger seeds. This is exactly what our lab was testing.

According to Darwin and his theory on evolution, organisms are presented with nature’s challenge of environmental change. Those that possess the characteristics of adapting to such challenges are successful in leaving their genes behind and ensuring that their lineage will continue. It is natural selection, where nature can perform tiny to mass sporadic experiments on its organisms, and the results can be interesting from extinction to significant changes within a species.

This report presents an overview to: meiosis, chromosomes, traits, genotypes, and phenotypes displayed in the evolution of fast plants. Studying how the genetic information can be passed along one generation to the following. Also, learning various techniques to determine the possible genotypes of the four Wisconsin Fast Plants provided by analyzing the offspring and observing the phenotypic variation within them. Predicting that the parent plant was heterozygous with the first generation also displaying heterogeneous characteristics of non- purple stem/ Green leaves. And discovering that the null hypothesis was rejected for the chi-square being less than 5% meaning the observed phenotypes were due by chance.

Stage six happens on days nine through thirteen. This is the stage when Fast Plants will begin to develop the buds for flowers on its tip, or shoot meristem. Stage seven is on days fourteen through seventeen, and in this time the Wisconsin Fast Plants’ flowers will bloom, and pollination may occur.

TRANSITION The concept of improving plants has been around since the day humans started growing plants. This was accomplished by

The overall goal of the experiment was to determine what caused allele frequencies to change in D. melanogaster over the course of several generations. Was it a result of a biological factor such as genetic drift or natural selection or did the changes result because of chance? To answer this question we must compare the data to the null hypothesis. The null hypothesis was there is not a difference in the data that would be expected to happen by chance. Therefore, there are no forces causing changes in allele frequencies. For the small population, we fail to reject the null hypothesis and cannot support a significant difference between the allele frequencies. With the null hypothesis being rejected, there is speculation that the changes were caused by chance or a variety of different biological terms. As a result, a variety of different hypothesis could be formulated. Was the population size to small so natural selection or genetic drift did not have a chance to work because the genetic variation was limited? Did the genetic variation result completely out of chance, resulting in not having a correlation at all to genetic drift or natural selection? This allows scientists to form new experiments that could lead to a better understanding of the small population. An example would be to continue this similar experiment but to increase the size of the small population from a total of 8 flies to a total of 60 flies. This would allow the population to actually show if genetic

Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection, a scientific theory that supported the belief of evolution, was manipulated and applied to different areas of life, and thus it became the shaping force in European thought in the last half of the nineteenth century. Darwin, through observation of organisms, determined that a system of natural selection controlled the evolution of species. He found that the organisms that were most fit and assimilated to the environment would survive. They would also reproduce so that over time they would eventually dominate in numbers over the organisms with weaker characteristics. This new theory was radical and interesting to the scientific world but its effects reach far beyond this small institution of

When summertime comes, nobody wants to see a garden full of wilted flowering plants that just can’t take the heat. If you want to make sure you still have a thriving garden when the temperatures climb up, check this list of heat- and drought-tolerant plants.

When going over the results, tweezers and pliers were shown to have the best adaptation for both large and small seeds. Clothespins were rated as being able to feed on large seeds, and chopsticks and binder clips were labeled as inefficient in surviving in any of the environments, regardless of the seed size. Therefore, the prediction from before was correct that chopsticks would be a difficult tool to use, and tweezers did end up being one of the most successful beaks. From this experiment, this also proved how the process of natural selection works, which was represented by the finches that adapted the best to their environments (the beak that was best fitted for picking up the seeds). These species that survived would later reproduce, and the useful traits would be passed down.

This lab is a fundamental example of Darwin’s theory of Natural Selection because it clearly shows the changes in population that were created because of traits that were considered to be the most advantageous in certain environments. These desired traits were then passed down to subsequent generations leading to a change in the overall genotype and phenotype frequencies of the population. This lab investigation also demonstrated the importance of environment in the role of natural selection. If the brown snails that lived in the grassy field had moved to a different location or had the environment changed, such as the grass in the habitat dying and turning brown, then their survival rates would have been much different.

In 1900, a group of botanist replicated Mendel’s findings to only discover later that Mendel had published the same findings almost 30 years earlier. A lot of question arose on how well Mendel’s results could fit in the theories of evolution

In 1859, after observing plant and animal breeders practicing artificial selection and reading Thomas Malthus’s essay on population, Charles Darwin formulated his theory of evolution. Artificial selection is the process where humans select animals and plants with desirable characteristics for breeding purposes. Seeing that breeders could alter plants and animal traits, it caused Darwin to wonder if such a process of selecting traits among organisms can happen in nature resulting in change. In 1858, a naturalist by the name of Alfred Russel Wallace had come to the same idea as Darwin where there is a natural process that selects only a few individuals for survival. Darwin and Wallace’s idea became known as natural selection.

The theory of evolution is significant as repeated testing that explains “an observable, verifiable truth – that life on this plant has changed over time.” (Fuentes, 22) It is the well-supported history of where all life came from on this planet.

Humans depend on plants in numerous ways. One reason we depend on plants is for consumption. Plants have the unique ability of producing their own food through a process called photosynthesis. In this process, plants are able to produce macromolecules such as carbohydrates that cannot be produced in animals or humans. In humans, the only to gain these macromolecules is to consume plant matter, or consume plant-eating animals (herbivores).