• Question: How will polution affect species reproduction?

    Asked by balletbecca to Amy, Karen, Sarah, Vijay, Will on 19 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Karen Reed

      Karen Reed answered on 19 Jun 2012:

      Hiya balletbecca, My guess is it will depend on what species you look at and what polution it is. In generaly its easy to think that ploution is a bad thing and is likely to had a bad impact on reporduction. But for some organisms – like bateria that feed on oil – polution – if it were an oil spill in this case – is a good thing as it introduces more of its food source and drives reproduction.

      as for human reproduction – I don;t think we’ll be able to adapt that quickly to polution so its likely to be a bad thing.

    • Photo: Sarah Martin

      Sarah Martin answered on 19 Jun 2012:

      Hi balletbecca,

      pollution with affect different animals and plants differently, but it will create a new selective pressure for further evolution, so things that can’t survive in pollution, or can’t procreate, will die out, and things that can will expand their populations. In cities you can already see that – animals that love pollution, like rats, cockroaches and pidgeons do really well in city centres, while more sensitive animals would never be seen there.

      🙂 Sarah

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