Writing Assignment 1
Cover Sheet
I certify that the writing in this assignment is my individual work and is my sole intellectual property. It does not contain the ideas, or writing of other individuals/authors.
Author ___________________________ Date ___________________
Lab Instructor ____________________ Lab Section # ____________
The Change in Allele Frequency of the Male Cichlid Fish Population
General Research Question:
Lake Malawi’s cichlid male population of fish are tested on their ability to build bowers to attract the female population. Altering this extended phenotype, or ability to build bowers resulted in no change of mating, but males that built successful bowers showed to be less aggressive with other males in the population. This is important in maintaining polymorphic populations (Magalhaes, 2014). In my self-created scenario, the focus is on the small male population of cichlid fish. The male cichlid fish ability to build successful bowers is dominant while not building successful bowers is recessive within the population. After a recent hurricane wiped out the cichlid population food source, the male population has been tested on their ability to find other food for the female population. The ability includes better strength and speed. Female cichlid fish find this new ability to more attractive than building successful bowers because of this environmental change. The purpose of this study is to determine natural selection and to see if the male population of cichlid fish will be altered due to the changes in their environment.
Null Hypothesis: The male population of cichlid fish will not have an altered allele frequency due to changes in the environment.
Alternative Hypothesis: The male population of cichlid fish will have an altered allele frequency due to changes in the environment.
Methods:
PopG software was used to perform this experiment. The data listed below are the settings