Question

A population contains short plants and tall plants. The short plants plants are not able to compete with tall plants for sunlight. The tall plants, however are more susceptible to wind damage. Which type of selection are the plants experiencing

Answer 1

Natural selection (survival of the fittest basically)

Answer 2

Answer:

Stabilizing Selection

Explanation:

In the given example, both the extreme phenotypes do not have any survival advantage. Short plants cannot get enough Sunlight while tall plants are damaged by wind. Natural selection will favor the intermediate phenotype, that is the plants with an intermediate height that would be able to obtain sufficient sunlight and would not be damaged by wind.  

The type of the natural selection that favors the intermediate phenotype (plants with intermediate height) over the extreme phenotypes (tall and dwarf) due to their survival fitness is called stabilizing selection. So, stabilizing selection is operative in the given population.