industrial melanism
industrial melanism The development of melanic forms of organisms in response to soot and sulphur dioxide pollution. Industrial melanism is especially associated with various moth species and was first noted early in the 19th century. In the 1950s, studies by H. B. D. Kettlewell on the moth Biston betularia showed that melanism is a simple inherited trait favoured by natural selection in soot-polluted environments, where dark colouring gives better camouflage and so better protection from predators. In time the proportion of melamc forms increases in such polluted environments. The reverse process–selection in favour of pale forms–occurs in pollution-free environments where the paler, speckled form is better concealed on the tree lichens on which it settles. With appropriate calibration, the extent of melanism in a population may thus be used as an indicator of industrial pollution. See also INDICATOR SPECIES.
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industrial melanism