How interaction between organism and their environment

leads to evolution and adaptation

Tan Paul Hong

21b2115
Introduction
Only 2 million species of organism on earth have been documented as of May 1998,
that is only a fraction of the 5 million to 50 million species of organism that scientists
have estimated to exist on Earth (Malmstrom, 2010). Almost every environment on the
Earth is inhabited by organisms, each environment has its unique constraints and
resources that organisms adapt and evolve to survive and reproduce via changing
physiological or structural traits or an organism. This report will be talking about how
organisms can evolve by interaction with their environment, how they adapt, the rise of
new species because of evolution, and the impact of agriculture on the evolution of
pests.

Evolution
Evolution is defined as the change of heritable traits of a population over several
generations. There are 5 mechanisms of evolution which are natural selection, mutation
genetic drift, non-random mating, and geneflow. Back in 1859, Charles Darwin wrote a
book titled “On the origin of species” where he wrote about the idea that organisms all
share a common ancestor and evolve, he proposed the idea that evolution was caused
by natural selection, which is defined as the process of organisms adapting and
changing that is caused beneficial heritable traits becoming more frequent in a
population over time (National Geographic Society, 2019). Selection is possible
because of the genetic variation of individuals in a population, genetic variation is
defined as the differences between individuals or between populations (Collins, n.d.).
Some of those individuals have adaptive traits that give them more of an advantage
over those without the trait in their environment meaning they are more likely to survive
and reproduce, the offspring then receives the adaptive traits from its parents; this will
continue over generations till the adaptive traits are more prevalent in the descendant
populations and transmitted through generations (National Geographic Society, 2019).
More offspring are produced by the organisms than the environment can support, this
creates competition some of the offspring are more likely to die off before getting to
reproduce, usually, those who did not inherit the adaptive traits (Khan academy, n.d.a).
Secondly, a mutation is defined as a mistake in the coding DNA of heritable cells or is
caused by exposure to something in the environment like radiation or chemicals
(National Geographic Society, 2019). Mutations can occur at random in the genome but
the rate of mutation in most organisms is usually low and uncommon; mutations that
have large effects will usually end up killing the organism as it develops so mutations
with small effects are more likely to be passed onto descendant generations (Biological
Principles, n.d.). It is because of this that mutations usually have little impact on allele
frequencies traits (Khan academy, n.d.b). Thirdly, evolution caused by genetic drift is
the random chance of a random sample of alleles in a population being passed on from
the current generation to the new generation, every population is always under the
influence of genetic drift (Biological Principles, n.d.). Genetic drift is usually ignored and
has no significant impact unless on an endangered or small population where the alleles
increase the population’s survivability in its environment (Biological Principles, n.d.).
Fourthly, non-random mating is when organisms prefer to mate with another organism
in the same population that possesses the same genotype or different genotypes; non-
random mating will only alter genotype frequency while allele frequency is not changed
(Khan academy, n.d.b). In populations where the organisms prefer to mate with
individuals with similar genotypes to themselves, the genotype frequency will shift in
favor of homozygotes; the genotype frequency will shift in favor of heterozygotes in
populations where the organisms prefer to mate with individuals with different
genotypes to themselves. Lastly, gene flow is defined as the movement of genes into or
out of a population from an organism or gamete of a different population; gene flow has
a large impact on a population’s allele frequencies (Khan academy, n.d.b). When two
different populations that have different allele frequencies start having individuals from
each population migrate to and mate with the other, both populations will start having a
change in allele frequency and the allele frequencies of both populations will begin to
become more alike. An example of evolution is the Galapagos finches that all evolved to
become well suited to their environment, such as finches with thin sharp beaks that ate
insects while finches that had tougher and bigger beaks that ate seeds; all the
Galapagos finches all shared a common ancestor from mainland Ecuador that had
migrated over to the Galapagos Islands and on each island each group of finches had
evolved into one or more distinct species (Khan academy, n.d.a).

Adaptation
An adaptation is a change in an organism or a part of an organism that makes its
chances of survival in its environment higher; organisms with these adaptive traits, such
as strength, speed, and attractiveness, are more likely to pass them down from
generation to generation than those without (National Geographic Society, 2020). There
are three types of adaptations, which are behavioral adaptation, structural adaptation,
and physiological adaptation. Behavioral adaptations are ways organisms act and
behave to better their chances of surviving in their environment; an example of this is
the seasonal migration of grey whales from arctic waters to the coast of Mexico during
winter to give birth to calves, they do this as the just born calves do not have a thick
enough blubber to protect them from the cold arctic waters, the whales then migrate
back to the arctic waters which are ore rich in nutrients for the calves (National
Geographic Society, 2020). Structural adaptations are the physical features of an
organism that helps it to survive its environment; an example of this is succulent plants
that are in deserts have stems and leaves which are capable of storing water (National
Geographic Society, 2020). Physiological adaptations are internal processes in an
organism’s body that allow it to thrive in its environment; certain animals have the ability
to change their internal temperature or metabolism as they move into higher or lower
altitudes (Gittleman, 2022). A kind of adaptation where an organism adapts to and with
another organism is known as coadaptation. One such example of coadaptation is
hummingbirds and flowers, hummingbirds have adapted long thin beaks to help them
suck up nectar while the flower possesses pollen that sticks to hummingbirds when
feeding and the pollen is distributed to the next flower; another example is mimicry
where an organism adapts their appearance to match another, on such organism are
harmless kingsnakes that resemble venomous coral snakes (National Geographic
Society, 2020). Though sometimes coadaptation can lead to coextinction, the extinction
of red ants in Southern England also causes the large blue butterflies that eat them to
disappear from southern England (National Geographic Society, 2020). Besides
coadaptation, adaptation is influenced by the habitat. An example of habitat cause
adaptation is industrial melanism. During the industrial revolution in Britain, most trees
were darkened by soot from factories, the more melanic peppered moths were more
common as they were able to avoid predation from birds because their dark coloration
camouflaged them against the soot-covered trees; vice versa in areas with less soot-
covered trees the less melanic moths were more common (Kettlewell, 1958). Structures
of an organism that are found in common ancestors and relatives of an organism, such
as the opposable thumbs of a panda, are not considered to be adaptive traits
(Gittleman, 2022). Vestigial structures which were adaptive to the ancestor and became
nonfunctional in the descendant are also not adaptive traits, an example is the
nonfunctional eyes of cave-dwelling fish (Evo 101, 2020a).

Speciation
An adaptation or certain adaptations can sometimes lead to one species becoming two
distinct species, this process is known as speciation. (Scitable, n.d.) There are 4 types
of speciation, allopatric speciation, peripatric speciation, parapatric speciation, and
sympatric speciation. Allopatric speciation is also known as geographical isolation
where a physical barrier or unfavorable conditions can divide two groups of a population
and prevent them from mating with each other, the gene flow between the two groups
does not have to be zero for it to be considered allopatric, just reduced significantly (Evo
101, 2020b). An earthquake in North America back in 1964 and freshwater ponds were
created from marine habitats on islands in Prince William Sound and the Gulf of Alaska
because they were uplifted by the earthquake, most of the ponds were colonized by
sticklebacks; in less than 50 years the sticklebacks have already diverged
phenotypically and genetically from their marine ancestors (Lescak, et al. 2015).
Peripatric speciation is a more specific type of allopatric speciation and occurs in an
isolated population where there are few individuals; the isolated group has some
individuals that carry a gene rare in the original population and after several
generations, the gene is more common in the population (Evo 101, 2020b). Eventually,
sexual selection of the gene and sometimes natural selection cause a series of changes
that make the isolated population reproductively isolated from the original population. In
the 19th century, some mosquitoes Culex pipiens entered the London underground and
became London underground mosquitoes which were genetically divergent (Biology
Online, n.d.) In parapatric isolation, although there is no physical barrier, individuals in a
population would prefer to mate with their geographic neighbors rather than those who
are on a different spectrum of their population; the reduction of gene flow and the
several selection processes in the population range can lead to divergence (Evo 101,
2020b). Certain groups of the grass species Anthoxanthum odoratum grow on soil near
mines that are contaminated with heavy metals, so they are tolerant to heavy metals
because of natural selection favoring heavy metal tolerant genotypes; the tolerant and
nontolerant grasses can still potentially fertilize each other, but because they have
evolved different flowering times, the gene flow between the two groups could be cut off
and lead to parapatric speciation (Evo 101, 2020b). Sympatric evolution occurs when
new species evolve from an ancestral species by becoming reproductively isolated and
still sharing the same habitat (Evo 101, 2020b). Cichlids found in Lake Malawi have all
diverged and evolved from their common ancestor because of their specialized diet,
some eat algae, some eat insects, and some eat other fish (National Geographic
Society, 2020).

Evolutionary impacts of agriculture on pests

The use of pesticides to kill off organisms that damage crops is a common practice, but
it also has the side effect of pests evolving rapidly to become more resistant to
pesticides (Turcotte et al., 2017). Factors that affect this are the scale of agriculture and
how frequent the pesticide is used, and the size of the population of pests as the larger
the size the more likely it is that the pesticide-resistant genotype exists (McDonald &
Linde, 2002). Pesticides have a very target-specific mechanism, and a single dominant
allele could possibly hinder them (Délye et al., 2013). Horizontal genes and plasmid
transfers enable microbial pests to transfer resistance to one another (Laxminarayan et
al. 2014). As an example, an active pest in potato crops known as the Colorado potato
beetle has become resistant to 55 types of ingredients used to control them (Heap,
2016). This has made crop growers use more and more pesticides, which eventually led
to negative impacts on water quality, human health, pollination, and biodiversity
(Turcotte et al., 2017). In order to prevent pests from evolving more resistant, certain
measures need to be taken. The first method is to diversify the selection by either
rotating different varieties and species of crops that possess different defense
mechanisms or rotating pesticides that have different modes of action (Palumbi, 2001).
The second method is to use crop tolerant crops that do not harm the pests and in turn
do not cause them to evolve and still maintain yield (Turcotte et al., 2017). The third
method is to use refugia to manipulate the pests’ mating structure, this makes a large
population of the pests grow off on a small fraction of the host population and ensures
they do not become resistant to pesticides (Turcotte et al., 2017). The last method is to
limit the spread of the pests by having sanitation protocols during transportation, limiting
the number of seeds transported, and spacing farms that have the same domesticated
species further apart; by doing this the size and evolution of the pest population can be
reduced significantly (McDonald & Linde, 2002).

Conclusion
Adaptations and evolutions give organisms a better chance to survive their environment
and eventually lead to new species coming into being. A lack of understanding of
evolution and not applying knowledge of it to agriculture can cause the uncontrolled
evolution of pests. Long-term sustainability and pest control while also considering
economic viability require further research.
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