Winter Skates: Epigenetic Changes In Genetic Research

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.

The Earth's rise in temperature is melting ice in its colder regions. Many animals who live in the Arctic Circle, the lands surrounding

From the data we can conclude that different traits or parameters can effect a population in many different ways. It can decrease or increase a population depending on the trait. After a hurricane hits Lake Malawi the cichlid fish male population must adapt to the new factors that have been put upon them. Mutation within the population supports the fact that it can cause dominant and recessive allele frequency to decrease. Migration causes the allele frequency to lower as well due to movement of the population after the hurricane. The cichlid male fish with a higher fitness are more suitable for their environment, but when their fitness is lowered, their allele frequency decreases. This

Most scientists estimate that the native moose to the area has been living there since the early 1900’s. Isle Royale in Lake Superior, Michigan offers unique opportunity to study the interspecies relationships found in a single ecosystem. This ecosystem is special and particularly useful in study because its primary inhabitants include a producer (the balsam fir tree), a consumer (the herbivorous moose), and a predator (the grey wolf). The predator wolf has been there since1945. The Grey Wolf was able to move to the island once the waters froze over. The moose population at the time was significantly

The purpose of this paper is to explore available research on the overpopulation of the Snow Goose on the North American continent. The snow goose has been rising in population since the middle of the century and has been escalating so much it is destroying their natural habitat. Wildlife managers have just recently begun to implement strategies to combat this problem. Mainly through the use of hunters the managers are trying to curb the population growth.

A population’s genetic makeup can change through mutations, change in location, an increase in population, and an increase in mating between organisms. Breeding within species ensure the future offsprings of a particular species and creates a variations in alleles than before. The environment is related to the organism existence in a community an example is a white butterfly in a snowy region. Predictors are less likely to see the

Prior NPRB projects have laid an important foundation outlining the effects climate change on Pink salmon in Alaska. A previous study has detailed the influence that biological, environmental and genetic factors had on the timing of Pink salmon migration (PI: Tallmon, project 1110), allowing us to support these data by testing, in a laboratory setting, the relative influence of specific climate change-related stressors on developmental rate, affecting out migration timing. Understanding environmental factors that influence overall performance of a species is critical to determining the susceptibility of that species to shifting habitat conditions. The proposed research will fill a gap of understanding regarding Pink salmon’s specific sensitivity

“Penguin responses to climate change in the Southern Ocean” by Jaume Forcada and Philip N. Trathan (2009) was a study conducted to analyze and predict the migrating patterns of different species of penguins due to changes in climate. (p. 1618) Also, Forcada and Trathan investigate whether or not certain species of penguins possess phenotypic plasticity (the ability of an organism to change its phenotype in response to changes in the environment) (p. 1618).

In Wisconsin the only state-endangered mammal is the American Marten. There are many theories on why the Marten has been having a rough time being reintroduced into the northern woods of Wisconsin. One of the theories is the Martens competition with Fisher, they exhibit overlapping niches and have developed a competition of the struggles for resources. However, they do coexist in Canada in have kept stable populations. The Marten doesn’t only have to face competition to hinder its effort to be reintroduced to the land it also faces climate change hurting the way fishers survive and thrive during the winter.

In this paper I will examine two diverse articles in an attempt to understand species-specific response to change. The first article focuses on species change from a broader point of view, looking at feeding ecology and trophic dynamics in a variety of Pacific salmon species. The second article presents a more in-depth analysis, researching the thermal tolerance of Sockeye Salmon specifically.

1. There are many ecological and biological factors that affect evolution. In EvolutionLab, two populations of finches are tracked over the course of 300 years on two different islands to see how changing the traits of the birds and their environment affect their long term viability as a sustainable population. Let’s begin by doing a “null experiment” where conditions are identical on the two islands.

Phenotypic plasticity, or differing phenotypes from one genotype in different environmental conditions, is a way for sessile organisms to adapt to changing environmental conditions (Valladares et al., 2007). Plasticity was expected to be abundant, however, it did not occur as often in nature due to resource limitations and environmental stress (Valladares et al., 2007).

“If no such variations exist, the population rapidly goes extinct because it cannot adapt to a changing environment” (O’Neil, 1998-2013). Scientists call this reproductive success. “Within a specific environment context, one genotype will be better than another genotype in survival or reproduction for certain reasons having to do with the way its particular features relate to the environment or relate to other organisms within the population” (Futuyma, 2000-2014). The theory of evolution is explicable through various kinds of scientific research.

It contains an expanse of tundra with many marshes and lagoons with rivers situated between foothills of the Brooks Range and the wide, icy waters of the Beaufort Sea. Environmentalists said that this area “is the most biologically productive part of the Arctic Refuge for wildlife and is the center if wildlife activity.” The importance of these resources is not measurable. The Arctic is home to such animals as caribou, polar bears, grizzly bears, musk oxen, whales, wolves and snow geese. This area is full of wildflowers and contains water of excellent, unpolluted quality and quantity. The Arctic Ocean costal plain is an area critical to the survival of many birds and mammals (‘Alaska Wild’).

There are many definitions of what constitutes an adaptation and a great debate amongst many famous biologists and philosophers, each championing their own definition of adaptation. Historical definitions include the ‘design’ oriented approach of Williams, who claims