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Part B
Many rain forest plants are prone to developing fungal infections on their leaves. Fungi can grow rapidly in moist environments, and a serious infection can kill plants. One rain forest plant species has a genetic variation that affects its leaf structure. The traits and the descriptions of the plant’s leaves are listed in the chart.

Description
Trait A: medium-tip leaves Leaves are narrower toward the tips, but don't come to a full point. Most of the water drains from the leaves.
Trait B: drip-tip leaves Leaves come to a sharp point, leading to thorough water drainage from the leaves.
Trait C: wide-tip leaves Water runs onto the leaves and tends to pool in pockets at the tips.
During natural selection, organisms with harmful traits are less likely to successfully reproduce than organisms with beneficial traits. Neutral traits don’t improve or hurt an organism’s chances for survival. So, they tend to persist in populations when environmental conditions are stable. If the environment changes, neutral traits could become harmful or beneficial depending on the situation.

In year 1, a population of rain forest plants has the following distribution: 50% have medium-tip leaves, 25% have wide-tip leaves, and 25% have drip-tip leaves. You will simulate three years of this population: year 1, year 5, and year 10. How will the trait distribution most likely change over this time?

Sagot :

The trait distribution most likely change over this time such that the plants with favorable traits, medium-tip leaves and drip-tip leaves will survive due to natural selection.

What is natural selection?

Natural selection is the process by which organisms which are better suited to their environment survive whereas those not suited die off.

The organisms that are suited to their environment possess special features which enable them to adapt to changes in their environment.

Considering the plants in the rainforest with different leaf tips:

  • Trait A: medium-tip leaves
  • Trait B: drip-tip leaves
  • Trait C: wide-tip leaves

Since fungi grow in moist environments, it can be seen that plants with Trait C will be least favored to survive, while plants with Trait B will be most favored to survive by natural selection.

Thus;

  • In year 1: the composition of plants is 50% have medium-tip leaves, 25% have wide-tip leaves, and 25% have drip-tip leaves.
  • In year 5: the composition of plants is 50% have medium-tip leaves, 25% have wide-tip leaves, and 0 % have drip-tip leaves
  • In year 10: the composition of plants is 25% have medium-tip leaves, 75% have wide-tip leaves, and 0% have drip-tip leaves.

In conclusion, plants with favorable traits will survive due to natural selection.

Learn more about natural selection at: https://brainly.com/question/14385908

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