Question

1. Suggest a mechanism that would allow a plant to grow better if it had intermorph neighbors than if it had intramorph neighbors. Think about the degree of genetic similarity between the focal plant and its neighbors and make a link between genetic similarity and resource use.
2. When biologists study natural selection they are looking for changes in genotype or allele frequencies across generations in the real world. Based on the thinking you have just done about plant growth, density, and neighbors, which experimental treatment(s) is (are) most likely to give you information about relative fitness of the two morphs that would apply to nature? Why?

Answer 1

Answer:

1. The intermorph neighbors might confer to the plant an adaptive advantage to make better use of available resources (e.g., water intake, light, etc.)

Explanation:

2. In plant breeding, the evaluation of different plant morphs is a routine technique and this analysis consists of testing the performance in different environments