Generation Number of purple flowers Number of white flowers 1 705 224 2 792 189 3 834 102 4 889 84 5 938 21 6 952 0 Ralph wanted to breed a pea plant that produced only purple flowers. He continued to breed purple-flower producing pea plants together over six generations. The results of Ralph's artificial selection are shown above. What did artificial selection do to the population of pea plants? A. caused a new species of pea plant to form B. increased its genetic diversity C. decreased its genetic diversity D. caused a pea plant to exhibit a new characteristic

C

Explanation:

The correct answer would be that artificial selection decreased the genetic diversity of the pea plant.

Genetic diversity is a measure of the number of traits or characters.

Initially, the breeding produced a considerable population of both white and purple flower offspring. But as time goes on, the population of purple flower offspring increased while that of the white flower decreased till it eventually reached zero.

Thus, artificial breeding reduced the number of traits in the population of the offspring from two to one - a case of reduction in genetic diversity.

The correct option is C.