Question

Would you expect the population of white peppered moths to increase, decrease, or stay the same during the period of Industrial Revolution? Explain your answer in terms of parents passing traits to their offspring.

Answer 1

The population of white peppered moths would be expected to decrease during the period of the Industrial Revolution. This is because the Industrial Revolution led to widespread pollution, which caused the trees in many areas to become covered in soot and other pollutants. As a result, the light-colored bark of the trees became darkened, making it easier for dark-colored peppered moths to blend in and avoid predators. This gave dark-colored moths a distinct advantage over white moths, as they were better able to evade predators and survive to pass on their genes to their offspring. Over time, this led to a decrease in the population of white peppered moths, as they were less well-adapted to their changing environment than their darker counterparts. Overall, this is an example of natural selection in action, as the environment selected for traits that gave certain individuals a survival advantage over others.

Answer 2

The population of white peppered moths would be expected to decrease during the period of the Industrial Revolution. This is because the Industrial Revolution was a time of significant air pollution, which caused tree bark and other surfaces to become darkened with soot and other pollutants.

Prior to the Industrial Revolution, the white peppered moth was well camouflaged on light-colored surfaces, while the black peppered moth was easily spotted by predators. However, as tree bark and other surfaces became darker during the Industrial Revolution, the black peppered moth became better camouflaged, and the white peppered moth stood out more against the dark background.

As a result, the predators began to prey more heavily on the white peppered moth, which had a higher chance of being spotted, while the black peppered moth had a higher chance of survival. Over time, the population of the white peppered moth decreased as more and more of them were killed by predators, while the population of the black peppered moth increased as more of them survived and passed on their traits to their offspring.

This is an example of natural selection, where certain traits that confer an advantage in a particular environment are passed down from parents to their offspring, leading to changes in the frequency of those traits within a population over time. In this case, the dark coloration of the black peppered moth was advantageous in the polluted environment of the Industrial Revolution, and so it became more common over time, while the light coloration of the white peppered moth became less common.

Step-by-step explanation:

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