What is the relationship between environment and phenoype?

Answer 1

The environment can affect the preferred phenotype of an organism so the organism survives. Take butterflies in a forest for example. The bark of the trees is a dark brown. If two butterflies land on the tree bark, one is black winged with some white spots, and the other is yellow winged with white spots, it is more likely the yellow one would be eaten by a predator because it is more easily seen. The black winged butterfly is less noticeable and blends in with the environment more, so it will survive and pass on it's dark colored wing gene to its offspring. Therefore, the yellow winged butterflies would 'die out' while the black winged butterflies would survive and continue to mate and make more black winged butterflies. It is all about survival of the fittest. If the environment seems to favor a particular phenotype, then that phenotype will be seen more throughout the environment because those organisms generally survive to reproduce.