Finchevolution

This is a lab report is on the evolution of finches on Darwin Island and Wallace Island. I wanted to experiment with certain variables to see how the birds on these islands would be affected. By examining small populations of finches on these islands, I would like to see the outcome of beak size and population as the finches on the island evolve with different controlled environments. The environment on the islands can be changed by island size, precipitation, and diet. What will happen to the birds over 100, 200, or 300 years? I think that if the precipitation on the island is higher then the seeds will be softer and the birds will evolve smaller beaks to eat the softer seeds. If the seeds are harder the beaks of the birds will be stronger and larger because of the force needed to open the harder food source. I assume the amount precipitation will affect the food source and thus the beak size as well.
The materials needed for this experiment are a computer, Internet access, and access to the EvolutionLab via the student website. The first step to my experiment is opening the EvolutionLab link on the student materials page. Once that link is selected, the EvolutionLab will open and a separate applet window will appear taking you to the actual EvolutionLab. On the left of the applet window there are tabs listing the different variables available for the experiment. These variables are: beak size, variance, heritability, clutch size, island size, population, and precipitation. The dependent variables are the beak size and finch population. Beak size can be adjusted via slider bar on the bottom of the window. This will let you choose initial beak size from 10 mm to 30 mm. Controlled the same way is population (number of finches on the island), which can range from 50 to 600 finches initially. Variance is an independent variable that you can control from 0.0mm to 2.0mm. This will control the amount of variance between beak sizes from one bird to