Variation inside the population of animals and plants as an indicator of the quality of their environments
Based on numerous field observations of Dendrominus piniL. caterpillars, a hypothesis had been formulated that in principle deterioration of living conditions causes an increase in intrapopulational variability of organisms.
The study aims at testing this hypothesis. Accordingly, measurements of the length of beetles Geotrupes stercorosusSc., their ecological and geographical populations and hights of pine seedlings of Pinus silvestrisL. had been performed in different forest site types of Poland.The results obtained confirm the hypothesis presented. The authors call for continuation of similar studies as they can yield results useful for environmental monitoring, as well as for certain aspects of silviculture.
