Claytonia virginica is a woodland spring herb with flowers that vary from white to pale pink to bright pink.Slugs prefer to eat pink-flowering over white-flowering plants (due to chemical differences between the two),and plants experiencing severe herbivory are more likely to die.The bees that pollinate this plant also prefer pink to white flowers,so that Claytonia with pink flowers have a greater relative fruit set than Claytonia with white flowers.A researcher observes that the percentage of different flower colors remains stable in the study population from year to year.If the researcher removes all slugs from the study population,what do you expect to happen to the distribution of flower colors in the population over time?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Slugs prefer to eat pink flowers over white flowers, which results in a higher mortality rate for pink-flowering plants. Therefore, removing slugs from the population would likely result in an increase in the proportion of pink flowers over time, as these plants would have a higher survival rate and greater reproductive success due to their attractiveness to pollinators.

Claytonia Virginica Is a Woodland Spring Herb with Flowers That