Unit 2: Key area 2.1 - Drift and Selection Flashcards Preview

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Flashcards in Unit 2: Key area 2.1 - Drift and Selection Deck (26)
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1
Q

Define: Evolution

A

The process by which different kinds of living organisms are believed to have developed from earlier forms during the history of the Earth.

2
Q

Define: Species

A

A species is a group of populations that can interbreed in nature.

3
Q

Define: Genetic Drift

A

The changes seen in the alleles of a population due purely to chance

4
Q

Define: Neutral Mutations

A

Mutations that do not give a selective advantage or disadvantage therefore subject to genetic drift.

5
Q

Define: Bottleneck Effect

A

Occurs when there is a disaster of some sort that reduces a population to a small handful which rarely represents the actual genetic makeup of the initial population.

6
Q

When does the founder effect occur?

A

Occurs when there is a lack of genetic variation due to a small mating population.

7
Q

Both bottleneck effect and founder effect provide an opportunity for what evolutionary process to take over?

A

Genetic Drift

8
Q

Define: Carrying Capacity

A

The population that can be sustained by a particular environment

9
Q

Define: Natural Selection

A

The differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype

10
Q

When population growth takes the population above the carrying capacity, this leads to what, to alter the carrying capacity?

A

Environmental Change

11
Q

List four living changes that could take place in an ecosystem to reduce population in an environment?

A
  1. Migration 2. Competition 3. Disease 4.Change of Species
12
Q

List two abiotic (non-living) changes that could take place in an ecosystem to reduce population in an environment?

A
  1. Climate changes 2. Geological processes - tectonic plate movement
13
Q

Changes in the ecosytem cause some organisms to struggle for surivial this is known as

A

selective pressure

14
Q

Evolution can occur through what three processes?

A

Genetic drfit, Natural Selection and Sexual Selection

15
Q

Define Genetic drift:

A

Random change in how frequently a particular allele occurs within a population

16
Q

Does genetic drift have a bigger or smaller effect on small gene pools?

A

Bigger

17
Q

Why do certain alleles occur more frequently within a population?

A

Because they confer a selective advantage

18
Q

Alleles that offer an advantage occur more frequently becasue they?

A

Increase the chance that the individuals can compete and survive to pass the advantageous allele on to future generations.

19
Q

Novel alleles arising in a situation is usually due to?

A

Random mutaiton

20
Q

Fitness can be measured in two terms which are?

A
  1. Absolute fitness 2. Relative fitness
21
Q

Define: absolute fitness

A

Ratio of frequencies of a particular genotype from one generation to the next.

22
Q

If the absolute freqency of an genotype is 1, then?

A

The frequency of the genotype is stable

23
Q

A value greater than 1 in the absolute fitness conveys an

A

Increase in the genotype

24
Q

A value less than 1 in the absolute fitness conveys a

A

decrease in the frequency of a genotype

25
Q

Define: Relative Fitness

A

Ratio of surviving offspring of one geotype compared with the other genotype

26
Q

Purple pea plants are the most reproductively successful so have a relative fitness of one, white pea plants are only 65% as successful so have a relative fintess of ?

A

0.65