Lab Report 1 Natural Selection

Natural Selection in Floral Valley Abstract: Natural selection plays one of the most important roles when it comes to evolution. The diversity of animals on Earth would have never gotten as far as it has without it. In this experiment, natural selection was mimicked by colored discs as species and a floral-patterned cloth as the environment. Since the environment consisted of shades of pink, green, and blue, we hypothesized these colored chips will blend in with the background and have a higher survival rate. The data showed the green and blue chips flourished, although, the pink did not. Therefore, our hypothesis was declined. Introduction: Without natural selection, most species, if any, would not have survived as long as they have. Natural selection shows how successful traits are passed down through reproduction and unsuccessful traits are ruled out and not passed down. This results in adapting species, meaning a trait is common within a population due to its enhanced actions (University of California: Berkeley). Charles Darwin came up with the idea that animals change over time (Khan Academy). Retrieving new data about Darwin’s idea is incredibly important because species are always evolving. New traits and adaptions are always happening and being discovered. Traits of an organism will affect the population due to the fact that it will increase or decrease based on the number of predators there are for that specific organism. Based on this, animals will begin adapting to new ways in order to increase their survival rate. The purpose of this experiment was to test whether a specific trait will increase or decrease the survival rate within a population, which would result in adaption to better the species. My group hypothesized that the chips of similar color to the cloth background will be less likely to be grabbed due to their camouflage in the environment. Materials and Methods: In this experiment, my group used a colorful, patterned cloth and five separate color discs to mimic an environment. The cloth had a floral pattern to it varying with light shades of pink, green, and blue flowers. Two people were considered predators, held a beaker in their hand, and turned away from the environment. Then one person took the chips for the original generation, 25 of each color, and scattered them around the environment randomly. The predators were timed for twenty seconds to pick up as many chips, one at a time, as they could. Then the chips picked up were counted by color. The chips that remained on the cloth (survivors) were also counted and placed into the beakers. The amount of chips that survived was then doubled, mimicking reproduction, and scattered on the cloth again. This was repeated for three generations. Results: The experiment began with 25 chips of each color, which was called the original generation. After each generation, the number of survivors was doubled, mimicking reproduction and the passing of traits. The group of which had the lowest survival rate by the end of the experiment was the red chips. The red chips survival rate decreased at a steady rate within the first, second, and third generations, beginning with a drastic decrease between the original and first generation (figure 1). Throughout the experiment, the pink, blue, and yellow chips did not have much variability. Whereas, in the first generation, the red and green had the most drastic change. The green chips had a drastic increase in survivability in each simulation. The red chips also had a drastic change but had a lower success rate through each generation. Discussion and Conclusion: Natural selection was shown the best through the green chips. The population flourished through each generation due to the successful traits being passed down to offspring. Whereas for the red chips, there were no successful traits, causing the population to deteriorate and eventually lead to extinction The cloth chosen for this experiment had a theme of pastel colors. We hypothesized the chips of similar color to the cloth, pink, green, and blue, would be less likely to be grabbed due to their camouflage abilities. We declined this hypothesis after going over data and realized the green and blue were very successful, whereas the pink did not succeed as well. In order to improve this experiment, many things could have been changed. The chips were not nearly the same shade as the flowers on the cloth, they did not blend in as expected. As previously mentioned, the cloth had a pastel theme, whereas, the chips had vibrant, neon shades. Also, there was an unrealistic portrayal of an environment. Meaning, there could have been obstacles that would mimic trees, holes, and other habitat features.