Question

Claytonia virginica is a woodland spring herb with flowers that vary from white to pale pink to bright pink. Slugs prefer to eat pink-flowering over white-flowering plants (due to chemical differences between the two), and plants experiencing severe herbivory are more likely to die. The bees that pollinate this plant also prefer pink to white flowers, so that Claytonia with pink flowers have greater relative fruit set than Claytonia with white flowers. A researcher observes that the percentage of different flower colors remains stable in the study population from year to year. Given no other information, if the researcher removes all slugs from the study population, what do you expect to happen to the distribution of flower colors in the population over time
A) The distribution of flower colors should not change.B) The percentage of white flowers should increase over time.C) The percentage of pink flowers should increase over time.D) The distribution of flower colors should randomly fluctuate over time.

Answer 1

Answer:

The correct answer is option C.

Explanation:

The slugs prefer pink flowers over the white ones. Thus, if the slugs are withdrawn from the population, the pink flowers are no more consumed and their number enhances. In a similar manner, the bees like to pollinate more pink flowers in comparison to the white ones.  

Thus, again, the pink flowers are getting pollinated in huge concentrations. Thus, the fruits and seeds are set and they produce another generation of pink flowers. Ultimately, there would be more pink flowers in the region in comparison to the white ones as the slugs that used to consume them, are also withdrawn.  

Earlier, both the numbers of pink and white flowers would remain steady as even though only some of the bees were pollinating white flowers, they were not getting consumed by the slugs. This had maintained a balance between the number of pink and white flowers. Thus, the number of pink flowers would increase with time if the slugs are removed.