Advantages and disadvantages to the different types of pollination

what is self pollination

plant’s own pollen lands on the stigma of the same flower

why is pollination with a high chance of success a benefit to self pollination

increases chance of seed production and species survival

why is offspring having reduced genetic variation an advantage in self pollination

genes all come from the same plant

if plant is well-adapted to living in a particular environment then the genes are conserved in the offspring

good genomes preserved - if there’s little change in the environment then keeping same adaptations means that the species is more likely to survive

why is reduced genetic variation a disadvantage in self pollination

all plants more or less equally adapted to same environmental conditions

all equally susceptible to same disease

if there’s significant environmental change then they can’t adapt quickly to t he changes and few individuals are able to survive

what is cross pollination

when a stigma receives pollen from a different plant of the same species

why is increased genetic variation of offspring an advantage to cross pollination

variation introduced in prophase 1 and 2 through random fertilisation

wide range of genomes produced

so chance of species survival increases if there is significant environmental change

why is crossing over and random fertilisation a disadvantage to cross pollination

good combinations of alleles can be lost