A hurricane sweeps across the southern tip of Florida,killing salamanders randomly.Salamander colour is genetic,and,after the storm,scientists notice that the frequency of yellow-brown salamanders and green-brown salamanders has changed significantly.This is an example of a ________ and we would predict that 20 generations after the storm the population would show ________.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The situation described is an example of a bottleneck effect, where a natural disaster (the hurricane) randomly reduces the population size, leading to a decrease in genetic diversity. This is represented by the significant change in the frequency of certain salamander colors. The prediction for 20 generations after the event would be that the population would show little genetic variation as a result of the bottleneck effect. Options A, B, and E are incorrect because they mention the founder effect, which is a different phenomenon where a small group of individuals establishes a new population with different frequencies of alleles than the original population. Option C is also incorrect because the bottleneck effect typically leads to lower genetic diversity, not higher.

A Hurricane Sweeps Across the Southern Tip of Florida,killing Salamanders