You observe a plant species growing a low elevation field sites and high elevation field sites. At low elevations, the individuals of this species average a height of 2 meters. At high elevations, the individuals of this species average a height of 0.5 meters. How could you determine whether this difference in plant height is a result of genetic differences or environmental differences? What type(s) of experiments could you do?
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Jens Clausen and colleagues, at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, studied how the size of yarrow plants (Achillea lanulosa) growing on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada varied with elevation. They found that plants from low elevations were generally taller than plants from high elevations, as shown in the diagram. Clausen and colleagues proposed two hypotheses to explain this variation within a species: (1) There are genetic differences between populations of plants found at different elevations. (2) The species has developmental flexibility and can assume tall or short growth forms, depending on local abiotic factors. If you had seeds from yarrow plants found at low and high elevations, what experiments would you perform to test these hypotheses?
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