Ecology: Concepts and Applications 4th Edition by Manual Molles

Exercise 5

Much of our discussion of life history variation involved variation among species within groups as broadly defined as "fish," "plants," or "reptiles." However, the work of Bertschy and Fox revealed significant variation in life history within species. In general, what should be the relative amount of variation within a species compared to that among many species? Develop your discussion using relative amounts of genetic variation upon which natural selection might act. You might review the sections discussing the evolutionary significance of genetic variation in chapter 8.