The California populations of the Northern elephant seal are descendants from a very small population of seals that was overhunted in the 1890s.Heterozygosity in this population would be expected to be ________ due to ________.

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A bottleneck effect occurs when a population's size is significantly reduced for at least one generation, leading to a loss of genetic variation. Since the Northern elephant seal populations in California are descendants from a very small population due to overhunting, they would have gone through a bottleneck effect, resulting in reduced genetic diversity or heterozygosity.

The California Populations of the Northern Elephant Seal Are Descendants