Henry was studying two populations of the same species of lizards. One population lived on an island and the other lived on the mainland. Both populations were affected by a hurricane that hit the island and the mainland with equal force. A year later, Henry was testing the gene frequency and saw a decrease in genetic variation in the island species, but not in the mainland species. Which best describes a conclusion he might have reached?

Question

Physics

Double Bubble

9 July, 14:19

Henry was studying two populations of the same species of lizards. One population lived on an island and the other lived on the mainland. Both populations were affected by a hurricane that hit the island and the mainland with equal force. A year later, Henry was testing the gene frequency and saw a decrease in genetic variation in the island species, but not in the mainland species. Which best describes a conclusion he might have reached?

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Dennis Love · Answer 1

The answer is Genetic drift greatly affects small populations, but large populations can recover. Genetic drift is a change in an allele frequency in a population due to the random sampling of organisms. It usually occurs after some catastrophe, such as a hurricane. It usually affects small populations than large ones because in the large populations there are enough organisms that can counteract the changes in an allele frequency.