(7 pts) 2. The Anza-Borrego desert is at 33°N of the equator. In terms of global influences, why do we find a desert there?

- There is a desert 33°N of the equator because air expands and rises at the equator and moves towards the poles high in the troposphere. Due to this, this creates low pressure at the surface near the equator. Since the desert is 33°N of the equator, the air moving from the poles up creates high pressure at the surface. Through the high pressure, air flows back towards the equator and the air sinks down which replaces the air that is moving towards the equator. What this does is rises air at the equator and then descends it once it hits 33°. The winds which blow back to the equator at the surface are due to the Coriolis effect. Since rising air produces cloud and rain, it cannot happen at 33°N because the air is descending which produces little to no cloud which would not allow rainfall, only desert.

(7 pts) 3. Imagine that a sample of plants are taken from Yosemite National Park and a sample of plants are taken from Merced and grown together in the same location (i.e., in a common garden). If plants from the two …show more content…
In adaptation, genetically controlled characters or traits are the factor that benefits to an organisms survival as well as its reproduction. In phenotypic plasticity it implies that a species can conquer diverse environments due to the fact that its genotype is made to adapt to different conditions. In the definition given in class it states that phenotypic plasticity is a non-genetic variation in response to environmental factors. In the question read above it states that two plants are taken and are then moved and grown together in the same location. Since phenotypic plasticity is when the phenotype can be altered in response to the environment it means that the plants are evidence of phenotypic