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Without variation what is there to select? If you do not have variations to be selected by natural or sexual selection on their superior abilities to survive and reproduce successfully then nothing can be naturally selected against the immediate environment.

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Why are variations in a species needed for natural selection to occur?

Variations in a species are needed for natural selection to occur because they provide the raw material for evolutionary change. Without variation, there would be no differences for natural selection to act upon, and individuals within a species would be identical. Variations allow some individuals to be better adapted to their environment, giving them a higher chance of survival and reproduction, thus driving the process of natural selection.


Why would natural selection not occur without genetic variations on species?

Without variation it would not be selecting, just random death of identical units.


How does natural variation affect evolution?

Natural selection (the driving force of evolution) is the selection of genetic variations by how they effect the organism's chances of survival or reproduction. If they diminish it's chances, the organism or it's immediate offspring die and the gene is gone. If the genetic variations increase it's chances, then it survives. Without genetic variations there can be no evolution. Natural selection is the selection (by environmental pressures) of those variations.


What is the process by which individuals with variations that make them best suited for their environment reproduce more than individuals without those variations?

Natural Selection


Suppose the climate in an area becomes much drier than it was before what kinds of variations in the areas plants might be acted on by natural selection?

without variation's, all the members of a species would have the same traits.


How does the need to conserve water result in so many adaptations?

Within a species or multiple species, those with variations that allow them to store water longer or live without it longer will survive more easily. Then, they will reproduce while the less water efficient of their species die out. This is natural selection.


Natural selection cannot occur without what?

Variations within a population. Variations mean traits that only certain individuals have that give the individual a greater or lesser chance of reproducing.


Explain why variations are needed for natural selection to occur?

Certain variations are more likely to be passed on to future generations than others, because those variations help their possessors reproduce more successfully. Other variations are less likely to be passed on because they do not help, or even hinder their possessors in successful reproduction. We say that the helpful variations are selected by the very nature of things. Without variation, whether an organism reproduces successfully or not is just a matter of blind chance. There is no natural tendency for certain individuals to be more successful at reproducing than others, because there are no differences between individuals.


What is the starting point for all natural selection?

The starting point for natural selection is the variation present in a population due to genetic differences. This variation provides the raw material upon which natural selection acts, allowing individuals with advantageous traits to survive and reproduce at higher rates, leading to evolutionary change over time.


Why could natural selection not occur without genetic variation in a species?

Natural selection is a change in allele frequencies of a species which allows that species to better survive in it's environment. Without genetic variation there would be no change in the allele frequency of a species. However, with genetic variation there is a chance that one particular member of a species will be born with a random mutation which allows it to better survive in it's environment, thus increasing the chance that it will reproduce and pass on that genetic trait to it's offspring who in turn will pass it onto their offspring and so on. Without genetic variation all members of the species and their offspring would be exact duplicates of each other and no particular member would have an advantage over another.


Can natural selection exist with out evolution?

Perhaps not, but evolution can exist without natural selection.


Is natural selection a cause of speciation?

Yes. Without natural selection there might probably still be change, but it would produce a fine gradient of diverging morphologies in every 'direction' of change. Natural selection limits the 'directions' of change, thereby producing distinct morphologies and thus distinct species.