Phenotypic Variation in Populations PDF

The human race has enormous he terogenei ty, founded on genetic and environmental sources. Variability, therefore, is a vital dimension in any consideration of human risk assessment. In the estimation of risks, current methods of extrapolation based upon converting the response of a median man are inadequate, as they ignore phenotypic variation and there fore, susceptible subgroups. There is a growing literature defining the extent of human variation in normal populations

physiology, morphology, and behavior. Despite the ubiquity of phenotypic variation within natural populations, its effects on the dynamics of ecological communities are not well understood. Here, we use a quantitative genetics framework to examine how phenotypic variation in a predator affects the outcome of apparent competition between its two