Question

1. ) Prior to 1900, the natural range of the moose, Alces alces, included all Canadian provinces except the island of Newfoundland. In 1904, two male and two female moose were transported from New Brunswick to Newfoundland, where they have founded a large population of 110,000 moose.

Describe and explain the expected evolutionary consequences due to genetic drift, shortly after the transport of the four moose, on (1) the New Brunswick population and (2) the Newfoundland moose population

Answer 1

Answer;

The eastern moose (Alces alces americana) is a subspecies of moose that modernly ranges throughout Eastern Canada, New England and northern New York. It inhabits boreal forests and mixed deciduous forests. It is the third largest North American subspecies, after the western moose and the Alaskan moose. Males are aggressive during mating season and will attack anything that provokes them.

Moose extend from the Alaska boundary all across Canada to the eastern tip of Newfoundland.

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Early studies of genetic variation in moose (Alces alces) indicated little variation. Recent studies have indicated higher levels of variation in nuclear markers; nonetheless, genetic heterogeneity of moose is relatively low compared with other mammals. Similarly, variation in mitochondrial DNA of moose is limited worldwide, indicating low historic effective population size and a common ancestry for moose within the last 60,000 years. That ancestor most likely lived in central Asia. Moose likely exhibit low levels of heterogeneity because of population bottlenecks in the late Pleistocene caused by latitudinal shifts in habitat from recurrent climate reversals. A northward movement of boreal forest associated with the end of the last ice age facilitated the northward advance of Asian populations and colonization of the New World, which occurred as a single entry by relatively few moose immediately prior to the last flooding of the Bering land bridge. Despite suffering serial population bottlenecks historically, moose have exhibited a notable ability to adapt to a changing environment, indicating that limited neutral genetic variation may not indicate limited adaptive genetic variation. We conclude that morphological variation among moose worldwide occurred within a few thousand years and indicates that moose underwent episodes of rapid and occasionally convergent evolution. Genetic change in moose populations over very short time scales (tens or hundreds of years) is possible under harvest management regimes and those changes may not be beneficial to moose in the long term. Modeling exercises have demonstrated that harvest strategies can have negative consequences on neutral genetic variation as well as alleles underpinning fitness traits.

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Genetic drift is a change in the frequency of an allele within a population over time. This change in the frequency of the allele or gene variation must occur randomly in order for genetic drift to occur.

consequences due to genetic drift;

Genetic drift is a process in which allele frequencies within a population change by chance alone as a result of sampling error from generation to generation.

Genetic drift is a random process that can lead to large changes in populations over a short period of time. Random drift is caused by recurring small population sizes, severe reductions in population size called "bottlenecks" and founder events where a new population starts from a small number of individuals.

Genetic drift leads to fixation of alleles or genotypes in populations. Drift increases the inbreeding coefficient and increases homozygosity as a result of removing alleles.

. Drift is probably common in populations that undergo regular cycles of extinction and recolonization. This may be especially important in natural ecosystems where both plants and pathogens are likely to have a patchy distribution where each patch is a small population.

1)

Moose (Alces alces) are highly mobile mammals that occur across arboreal regions of North America, Europe, and Asia. Alaskan moose (Alces alces gigas) range across much of Alaska and are primary herbivore consumers, exerting a prominent influence on ecosystem structure and functioning. Increased knowledge gained from population genetics provides insights into their population dynamics, history, and dispersal of these unique large herbivores and can aid in conservation efforts.

2)

The moose (North America) or elk (Eurasia), Alces alces, is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family.

Moose are mostly diurnal. They are generally solitary with the strongest bonds between mother and calf. Although moose rarely gather in groups, there may be several in close proximity during the mating season.

Rutting and mating occurs in September and October. During the rut, mature bulls will cease feeding completely for a period of approximately two weeks; this fasting behavior has been attributed to neurophysiological changes related to redeployment of olfaction for detection of moose urine and moose cows.The males are polygamous and will seek several females to breed with. During this time both sexes will call to each other. Males produce heavy grunting sounds that can be heard from up to 500 meters away, while females produce wail-like sounds.Males will fight for access to females. Initially, the males assess which of them is dominant and one bull may retreat, however, the interaction can escalate to a fight using their antlers.

Female moose have an eight-month gestation period, usually bearing one calf, or twins if food is plentiful,^[140] in May or June.Twinning can run as high as 30% to 40% with good nutrition.Newborn moose have fur with a reddish hue in contrast to the brown appearance of an adult. The young will stay with the mother until just before the next young are born. The life span of an average moose is about 15–25 years. Moose populations are stable at 25 calves for every 100 cows at 1 year of age. With availability of adequate nutrition, mild weather, and low predation, moose have a huge potential for population expansion.

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Therefore,In small populations, genetic drift can lead to a random loss of alleles, and inbreeding may then occur with consequent survival and fitness reductions, an increase of the frequency of deleterious mutations and increase the population of the species.