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Nsta. “Environmental Change and Evolution: Which Mechanism of Microevolution Caused the Beak of the Medium Ground Finch Population on Daphne Major to Increase in Size from 1976 to 1978?” NGSS@NSTA, ngss.nsta.org/Resource.aspx?ResourceID=638.

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The trait affects survival and /or the ability to reproduce, and individuals who reproduce pass on their genes to the next generation. This trait in the finch is the size of their beak. The average beak size increased on Daphne Major for the medium ground finch population.

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The more they reproduced the faster their genes were passed down (Nsta. “Environmental Change and Evolution: Which Mechanism of Microevolution Caused the Beak of the Medium Ground Finch Population on Daphne Major to Increase in Size from 1976 to 1978?” 305).

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The portulaca plant died off, causing the finch to begin eating harder seeds and this caused their beak size to adapt to new diets through new generations. With the bigger beak they were able to eat the Tribulus  plant seeds. Small and thin beaked finches are unable to eat the hard Tribulus seeds, so they died. The population decreased from 751 to 284, only 90 from original 751.  The finches needed food and most likely began to eat the tribules plant seeds which was harder than their normal diet.  The finches beaks were not hard enough to eat the seeds. The variation in a trait among the individuals that make up a population is because of natural selection.

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The finches struggled to find food which caused a good majority of their population to die off (Nsta. “Environmental Change and Evolution: Which Mechanism of Microevolution Caused the Beak of the Medium Ground Finch Population on Daphne Major to Increase in Size from 1976 to 1978?” 306).

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There was a decrease in rainfall on Daphne Major (a severe drought). The rainfall decreased to 20mm. Natural selection caused them to do this because they needed to survive and reproduce faster since they were dying off.

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Drought caused the plants to wither off and die (Nsta. “Environmental Change and Evolution: Which Mechanism of Microevolution Caused the Beak of the Medium Ground Finch Population on Daphne Major to Increase in Size from 1976 to 1978?” 306) .

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Natural selection caused the beak of the medium ground finch population on Daphne Major to increase in size from 1976 to 1978.