Evolution in the Cornbelt : how a few special species are adapting to industrial agriculture
Name
969441534-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
Size
2.59 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
861d2ef1b975f6401df29809f3ce70e2
Author(s)
Gearin, Conor J. (Conor James)
Advisor(s)
Marcia Bartusiak.
Alternative Title
Evolution in the Corn Belt
Date Issued
2016
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
Over the last 150 years, humans have wrought sweeping changes to the Great Plains. What was once the prairie is now the Corn Belt-row crops planted from fencerow to fencerow. What does this mean for the native wildlife, which evolved for millions of years to live only on the prairie? Here are the stories of three species-cliff swallows, western corn rootworms, and prairie deer mice-that natural selection has reshaped to thrive in the new agricultural landscape. With his finches, Charles Darwin read the record of evolution in the past. In the Corn Belt, today's scientists can see evolution in real time.
Description
Thesis: S.M. in Science Writing, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Humanities, Graduate Program in Science Writing, September 2016.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. "June 2016."
Includes bibliographical references (pages 29-32).
Subjects
Graduate Program in Science Writing.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Graduate Program in Science Writing
MIT Program in Writing & Humanistic Studies
Terms of Use
MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.
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