Final answer:
Microevolution involves changes within a population's gene pool affecting allele frequencies, driven by mechanisms like natural selection and mutation. Macroevolution includes large-scale changes that result in new species and taxonomic groups over long periods, involving speciation and mass extinctions.
Step-by-step explanation:
The differences between microevolution and macroevolution lie in the scale and consequences of evolutionary changes. Microevolution refers to the changes within a population's gene pool, affecting the frequencies of different alleles of genes over time. Examples of factors that drive microevolution include natural selection, mutation, genetic drift, and gene flow. These small changes accumulate and can eventually lead to macroevolution. Macroevolution, on the other hand, encompasses the large-scale evolutionary changes that occur, resulting in the emergence of new species and broader taxonomic groups over long periods of time. It covers processes such as speciation and the impacts of mass extinction events. Thus, while microevolution might affect particular traits within a species, macroevolution could lead to the development of entirely new species, evolutionary branches, and complex changes that define the Earth's biological diversity over geological timescales.