Preview - From Ecosystems To Speciation

Natural Selection Model 2: Test the prediction

Set the given values for the following parameters: 

 #-PHENOTYPES   6
 INITIAL-#-BACTERIA-PER-PHENOTYPE   8
 RESOURCE-LOCATION   'around a central point'
 RESOURCE-DISTRIBUTION  40%

 

 

 

 

Click setup and run the model until only one phenotype survives. Repeat the experiment 5 times and note your results in the table below.   Make sure you uncheck the "view updates" box at the top of the model.  This will still allow you to see the plots update, and will make the model run much more quickly.

Questions

Please answer the questions below.

Fill in the table below:

Describe any patterns you observe in the results of the previous computational experiment.

In this environment, the bacteria face selection against extremely small and extremely large numbers of flagella.  This is an example of stabilizing selection, which reduces the amount of variation in a population.  Stabilizing selection typically occurs when the environment isn't changing much.  Why is there selection against a small number of flagella?  Why is there selection against a large number of flagella?

 

Notes

These notes will appear on every page in this lesson so feel free to put anything here you'd like to keep track of.