Is the effect of an individual permanently leaving a population likely to have a greater genetic effect if the home population was large or if the home population was small?
A)Large, because this is an example of disruptive selection.
B)Large, because natural selection will cause a bottleneck to occur in the remaining individuals.
C)Small, because the loss of just a few individuals may greatly reduce the remaining genetic variation.
D)Small, because the remaining individuals will no longer be able to practice nonrandom mating.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

In a small population, the loss of just a few individuals can greatly reduce the remaining genetic variation. This is because genetic variation is a result of random mutations and recombination during reproduction, and a small population has less genetic variation to begin with. In a large population, the loss of an individual is unlikely to have as significant of an impact on the overall genetic diversity of the population.

Is the Effect of an Individual Permanently Leaving a Population