Who Wants to Live a Million Years: Analysis of a Natural Selection Simulation

It took me a few tries to win a game, mostly because I didn’t know how to play it at first, but after a while I started winning about ¼ times. I picked the most different ones I could find so there could be lots of genetic diversity. One thing I saw that relates to genetic drift is that sometimes a volcano would erupt, or a meteor would hit earth. The dominant ones were obviously long legs or long necks; getting food from tall fruit plants or running away from predators. Cold conditions: fur/hair on head/body. Hot conditions: No fur or hair on any part of the body. New large predator: need long legs for running away. New tall food source: long necks. Three improvements that they could add to make this simulation more realistic: Other species interrupting with them, required constant source of water/food, and to make time pass slower.

#9: A Matter of Selection

Why does Brassica oleracea have so many variates  that have so many different traits yet are of the same descent? That is likely because of selective breeding or when humans artificially select which plants breed together based on their phenotypes.  descent with modification can happen because of  mutations that lead to natural variations.

One of a kind: The wonders of Biodiversity

The plant we are using for this is Romanesco, which is similar to cauliflower. To tell what the chances are for baby plants to get certain traits, it's best to use a punnett square. The baby plants receive traits from their parents so they should have similar traits. The plants look different because they followed a certain genetic pathway enough so that they look much different than other types in the species.

How does your garden grow?

The plant grows bigger/gains more biomass by taking water and nutrients from the soil and makes more cells; in simpler terms, the plant takes things from outside, absorbs them, and grows bigger. If it needed more of those enzymes, it would absorb more nitrogen from the soil. Enzymes are in the protein bio-molecule group.

Living or Not

The plants have grown a lot since I last checked them, and they seem to be doing okay. Plants are a living thing because they grow and produce things like oxygen. If you do not give them enough water, sunlight or soil with lots of nutrients, then they will start to limp over and eventually die. The appearance has changed a lot as well, from being a small seed into a small stem with leaves and eventually into a full grown plant. You could measure the amount of things it requires to survive over time as it gets bigger in size.

An Ecological Analysis of the Garden and your Plants

1. Biotic factors: Sunlight, nutrients from the soil, temperature. Abiotic factors: 

2. They are growing over each other, and trying to grow taller. They are most likely fighting over sunlight.

3. Whoever gets ahead faster. Yes and no, if they are trying to fight over sunlight it's obvious, but for other reasons it might not be as obvious.

4. Trying to grow away from each other or onto other things. It effects how tall/thick it is.

5. Primary succession, the seeds are bought and put in the garden, instead of dying and putting more seeds in.

Biogeochemicals Cycles and Your Plants

1. Since I last checked, they got taller and the leaves started to grow outwards.

2. They take a part in the nitrogen cycle by taking it in from the soil.

3. When consumers produce waste or die, it puts nitrogen back into the soil and the cycle continues.