Guppy Simulation Questions

1. Maybe the guppies are colorful for mating purposes, or to attract some sort of even smaller prey.

2. Poecilia Reticulata, Brazil, 1.4". The guppy is bright yellow, blue, green, and red.

3. Pike Cichlid, Crenicichla Alta, Trinidad and Latin America, up to 1 foot

4. Water extremely shallow wouldn't be able to sustain large predators. Large dams also prevent predators from eating the guppies. In streams and other quickly moving bodies of water, guppies are at high risk of being eaten.

5. John Endler was an evolutionary biologist in the 1970s. He studied behavior patterns in Trinidad's native guppies.

6. Pool 1: The guppies have large spots and have many bright colors. They look particularly orange.
Pool 2: The guppies have medium sized spots, and medium bright coloring. They are black and gray with some orange.
Pool 3: The guppies have little spots and are very drably colored.

7. If there are many predators present, then the guppies will be drably colored, as to not attract unwanted attention. The opposite would be true of safer areas.

Trial 1

Guppy: Even Mix
Predators: 30 Rivulus

% of brightest guppies- 48%
% of bright guppies- 30%
% of drab guppies- 20%
% of drabbest guppies- 2%

Trial 2

Guppy: Even Mix
Predators: 30 Rivulus, 30 Acara

% of brightest guppies- 13%
% of bright guppies- 58%
% of drab guppies- 29%
% of drabbest guppies- 0%

Trial 3

Guppy: Even Mix
Predators: 30 Rivulus, 30 Acara, 30 Cichlid

% of brightest guppies- 0%
% of bright guppies- 12%
% of drab guppies- 57%
% of drabbest guppies- 31%

Trial 4

Guppy: Mostly Bright
Predators: 30 Rivulus

% of brightest guppies-90%
% of bright guppies-8%
% of drab guppies-2%
% of drabbest guppies-0%

Trial 5

Guppy: Mostly Drab
Predators: 30 Rivulus, 30 Acara, 30 Cichlid

% of brightest guppies- 0%
% of bright guppies-0%
% of drab guppies-19%
% of drabbest guppies-81%

8. When there are many predators, the brightest guppies are weeded out and killed, while the drabbest ones flourish. The opposite is true for situations without predators, because the colorful guppies found mates easier.

9. Yes, becuase the drabbest fish survived with many predators and the brightest guppies did not.

10. This means that the guppies need to adapt to their surroundings so that they won't be eaten and will still find a mate.

11. The guppies have different coloration depending on their location in the stream because of the amount of predatory fish living along side them.

12. The drab guppies would be very unfit, because they wouldn't be able to attract a mate.

13. The bright guppies would be easily weeded out by natural selection, because they would be easy for predators to find.

Conservation for the People Summary

Old methods of persuading humans to take action and help the environment have been somewhat unsuccessful, so some conservationists have decided to take a different approach. Instead of protecting biodiversity for its own sake, we should preserve it because of human benefit. This will ease tension between residents of protected areas, because they feel as though they are being pushed aside for plants and animals. "Hot Spots," or regions with excessive rare plant and animal life, will be targeted for protection in the new plan, as opposed to only particularly adorable animals like polar bears. Evaluations of the system will take not only the conservation of diverse ecosystems into affect, but also human satisfaction. This plan is aimed at making biodiversity more relevant to the everyday American.

Biodiversity

1. The species with the highest risk of extinction are the ones that are most closely grouped together and concentrated in one area. By protecting the local biodiversity, we can preserved the most crucially endangered animals. Once the species were same from extinction, they would begin to expand in numbers, and therefore create a larger global population.

2. A loss of species diversity in one area can definitely impact the globe, especially in the economy. Today's interwoven financial system throughout the planet has created essentially one enormous market. If the fishing industry in the Gulf Coast, for example, were to go under, then any areas that ate fish taken from the endangered ocean space would have a shortage. This might lead them to find substitutes for the Gulf fish. These substitute fishing markets, from being overworked, could then have fish shortages of their own. In this way, a local crisis can become global issues.

3. Evidence shows that by preserving the local ecosystems has a positive impact for the human population. In one example, an excessive season of whale hunting caused a string of events that led to the decimation of the local fishing industry. By preventing these destructions of the food chain, we can sustain our livelihoods as well as the environment.