In the study of ecology, individual is defined as a single entity, separate from other organisms. It can be flora or fauna renowned from other of the same kind. This individual interacts with other organisms within its environment. This is also known as single organism. The study of all individual species in any given area is called autecology. Individual organism has the capacity to adopt based on its evolution. This individual thrives into a specific condition and interacts among other organisms. Individuals adapt to varying environmental conditions which allows them to survive and at the same time reproduce into different kinds of habitat.
Considering that individual has unique characteristics, the occurrence of asexual reproduction advantageous in some cases, but can also be deleterious for others. The process of asexual reproduction does not undergo the process of meiosis or vegetative phase. In the asexual reproduction fragmentation often occurs. Each offspring created has the capacity to break a small part of its organism. For example, planting the tubers of a potato, this can possibly create a new species of organism with similar genetic make-up. Positive side of this process in reproduction is that asexual organism can reproduce much quantity and very rapidly wherein this happens in a stable environment. For some plants, during occurrence of dryness, bypassing to fertilize egg can be possible. In the line of agriculture, it is then possible to clone the same characteristics of a plant due to economic purposes. The negative consideration here are cases like fatal mutation, this can affect the clone population as a whole. Farmers are very much aware of this, therefore they their best to carefully select the safe process to propagate vegetative materials. The process of asexual reproduction is very significant for plants. Raspberries are example of successfully cloned plant. For the case of some organisms, asexual reproduction comes from one parent source in which the progeny inherited its genetic make-up (NCS Pearson, 2016).
References
NCS Pearson. (2016). Asexual Reproduction. Retrieved from TutorVista.com: http://biology.tutorvista.com/cell/asexual-reproduction.html
