Question

Question 5 2 pts Leaving portions of a crop field untreated by pesticides helps slow the evolution of pesticide-resistant pests by (Select the best answer) allowing interbreeding of non-resistant and resistant individuals providing a food source free of pesticides changing the nutrient content of the crops increasing pest biodiveristy

Answer 1

Leaving a portion of a crop field untreated by pesticides helps slow the evolution of pesticide-resistant pests by allowing interbreeding of non-resistant and resistant individuals. This is because in the presence of pesticides, pests that are sensitive to a pesticide will die and as a result, their gene pool will not pass to the future generation. In contrast, pests that develop resistance to the pesticide as a result of mutation will be favored by natural selection and will be evolved as a dominant population. In the absence of pesticide (which acts as an external factor for natural selection), both resistant and sensitive varieties will live and reproduce and the rate of evolution will be slow because there is no benefit of a gene over others so the population will be almost same.