ENGL 100 Lecture Notes - Natural Selection, Overgrazing
20 Nov 2012
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Evolution: nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution. Natural selection may cause a living species to respond to the challenge by adaptive genetic changes. These changes may enable the species to occupy the formerly empty ecologic niche as a new opportunity for living, or to resist the environmental change if it is unfavorable. Lack of successful response may cause the species to become extinct. Amino acid sequences in a given kind of protein vary within a species as well as from species to species. The tragedy of the commons must eventually equal zero. A finite world can support only a finite population; therefore, population growth. To live, any organism must have a source of energy. This energy is utilized for two pur- poses: mere maintenance and work. For man, maintenance of life requires about 1600 kilocalories a day.
