Question

Create an argument using empirical evidence and scientific reasoning to defend one of the following sexual reproduction methods as the most effective: animals’ internal fertilization, animals’ external fertilization, flowering plants’ wind pollination, or flowering plants’ animal pollination.

Give at least two scientific reasons for why the method that you chose is most effective at creating genetic diversity. Part of your argument should refer to the structures involved. Your argument should also include examples of why at least two of the other methods are not as effective.

Answer 1

I would argue that animal pollination of blooming plants is the most successful form of sexual reproduction for generating genetic variation.

According to science, animal pollination enables the transport of pollen from one flower to another, increasing the genetic variety of the population. This is so that there is a greater potential of genetic mixing because different animals may visit various blooms, dispersing pollen from various plants.

Another justification is that, in contrast to wind pollination, animal pollination frequently entails actively moving pollen from one flower to another, which may result in higher genetic variety. While wind-borne pollen frequently travels enormous distances, it also tends to be dispersed by plants that are close relatives. Animals who visit flowers and spread pollen, on the other hand, are more likely to visit a variety of plants, encouraging greater genetic mixing.

Animal pollination also transfers genetic material from one plant to another, rather than only within a single plant or a group of closely related plants, making it more effective in promoting genetic variety than both animal internal fertilisation and external fertilisation.

• Due to its capacity to encourage the transfer of pollen from various plants and physically transport the pollen, which results in greater mixing of genetic material, animal pollination of flowering plants is, therefore, the most effective method of sexual reproduction in terms of generating genetic diversity.

Hope it helps! : )