Question

Thomas Malthus' most well known work An Essay on the Principle of Population was published in 1798. His thesis on the human condition was radically opposed to current thinking at the time. He argued that increases in population would eventually diminish the ability of the world to feed itself and he based this conclusion on the idea that populations expand in such a way as to overtake the development of sufficient land for crops. We can apply Malthus' thesis as analogous to the concept of population carrying capacity. Malthus' ideas regarding population can be applied to natural selection. Identify a critical component of both Malthus and natural selection that is reflected in the graph from "overshoot" to "die off".A)Genetic drift may occur and randomly select certain individuals to survive and reproduce.B)Overpopulation occurs but cannot be supported; not all members of a population get to reproduce.C)In any population where variation exists, sexual reproduction occurs among the most successful members.D)In any large population, genetic variation exists due to the presence of mutations. Some are advantageous, other are not.

Answer 1

We have to consider that in those points of the graphs, "overshoot", and "die-off", there's a behavior in each population that Malthus stated in his work, and which is also related to natural selection: organisms begin to reproduce themselves benefiting on the favorable conditions, such as the food and land resources, among others, such as the partner availability, and when they reach the carrying capacity, their population overreaches a limit that can no more sustain all the individuals. Considering this, we can say that the answer that better relates to a critical component of both Malthus and natural selection reflected on those points of the graph is the second one, which states "overpopulation occurs but cannot be supported; not all members of a population get to reproduce".