Speed Of Change

Hypothesis: The drought and the seed availability caused by the drought on the Galapagos
Islands will impact avg. beak depth of the medium ground finches. Due to the reduced amount
of tiny seeds being available during the time of the drought, finches with more significant beak
depths were capable of cracking open larger, harder seeds, which Will be more likely to survive.
This will result in the avg. beak depth becoming larger in the population of finches.

In Table One there is a variation between the beak depths among the parents, Some parents
have longer beak depths meanwhile some have smaller beaks and are close in length. The
offspring show that their beak depths vary and are not closely aligned with their parents. This
shows that there is genetic variation and diversity among the population and the offspring don’t
necessarily inherit the parent's beak depth.

Genetic variation with regard to the finches, The variation with beak depths is most likely due to
the genetic diversity between each other. The genes that the offspring inherit may give them a
larger or smaller beak compared to the parents. This change in genetics proves that their
population has the ability to adapt and change along with the environment.

- The Average beak depth for parents on Daphne Major in 1976 was around 9.5mm

- The Average beak depth for offspring on Daphne Major in 1976 was around 10.2mm
- The Average beak depth for parents in Santa Cruz in 1976 was around 9.0mm

- The Average beak depth for survivors of Daphne Major in 1978 was around 10mm
The histograms show that the beak depth distribution of finches on Santa Cruz in 1976 which
was around 9.0mm shifted towards smaller beak depths compared to the offspring finches on
Daphne Major in 1976 which was around 10.2. The difference in beak depths proves that the
populations on the two islands are going through allopatric speciation and are evolving
differently.

If we compare the histograms of the surviving finches on Daphne Major in 1978, with the finch's
offspring on Daphne Major in 1976 you can see that the surviving finches on Daphne Major in
1978 have beak depths of around 10.0mm have slightly smaller beak depth of on average
compared to the offspring finches on Daphne Major in 1976 with a beak depth around 10.2mm.
The difference in these beak sizes shows that there might have been selective pressure against
finches with the largest beak depths because the impact of the drought on seed availability may
have changed, leading to a shift in the best beak size for survival in a changed environment.

Hybrids that are produced by parents that came from different islands could introduce new
genetics and increase genetic variation within its population. If the hybrids have favourable traits
that provide a survival advantage the new genetics could easily spread through the rest of the
population and lead to further adaptation to the finches changing environment and impact the
overall beak depths of the population.

Summary: The investigation that was done on the Galapagos Islands showed the impact of
drought and seed availability on the beak depth of the finches. The results showed that the
drought caused an evolutionary change due to the change in food source and showed that
larger beak depths prevailed in survival, as a result, there was selective pressure to reproduce
with finches with larger beak depths, This also lead to the increase in offsprings beak depths
with them becoming larger. The populations on different islands also showed evidence of
allopatric speciation, with different average beak depths showing separate evolutionary paths.
The surviving finches after the drought had a slightly reduced average beak depth, suggesting
selective pressure against extremely large beak depths. The presence of genetic variation in the
population highlights the adaptability of the finches to changing environmental conditions.
Overall, the investigation supports the hypothesis I had that drought and seed availability had an
impact on the average beak depth of the finches on the Galapagos Islands.