natural articles
What is the primary immediate objective favored by natural selection?
Which mode of sexual selection involves direct conflict, favoring traits like increased size or weaponry?
What illustrates the potential opposition between survival and mating success?
What distinguishes the selective pressure exerted by sexual selection from general natural selection?
Traits resulting from strong sexual selection are often characterized by what qualities?
What is the usual direct evolutionary consequence when sexual selection operates strongly on one sex?
If a predator is rare, what evolutionary trajectory is likely to occur regarding sexual traits?
What does the evolved trait level represent when sexual selection imposes a high survival cost?
What is the primary mechanism driving intersexual selection?
In evolutionary terms, why is sexual selection sometimes categorized as a type of natural selection?
What process is the fundamental driving force behind the incredible diversity of life powered by evolution?
What is the raw material upon which natural selection acts?
For natural selection to operate, what essential condition relates to passing traits from parent to offspring?
What must be present, stemming from a struggle for existence where offspring production exceeds environmental support?
On which physical aspect of an organism does natural selection exert its direct sorting pressure?
Although selection acts on individuals, where is the resulting evolutionary change observed?
Which type of selection occurs when the intermediate phenotype is the most fit, selecting against traits at both extremes?
If the environment consistently shifts in one direction, causing the population's average trait value to move toward a new extreme, what selection mode is acting?
Which selection mode favors individuals at both phenotypic extremes while actively selecting against intermediate forms?
What is the immediate outcome where a trait becomes common in a population because it improves fitness under current living conditions?
What concept defines the theoretical maximum number of individuals an environment can continuously support?
Is the carrying capacity ($K$) considered a static number etched in stone?
Which process is cited as the most direct example of a density-dependent limiting factor?
What characterizes the action of density-independent limiting factors?
What is the collective term for the constraints imposed by the environment that act as brakes on population expansion?
What often results from the time lag between when a resource limit is reached and when the population actually responds to that pressure?
What classification encompasses non-living physical elements like temperature or sunlight that limit populations?
In the forest ecosystem example, what abiotic factor sets the ceiling for the biotic factor of plant biomass the area can support?
How do density-dependent limitations fundamentally affect population growth?
When humans use technology like synthetic fertilizers, what often happens to the limiting factor for agricultural production?