In: Biology
1. For the following statement, indicate whether what is described would result in an increase or decrease in genetic diversity within population.
a. Inbreeding due to a small population that is geographically isolated
b. A 10,000 person population growing from the movement of 5,000 people into the population coming from another geographically isolated location.
c. A catastrophic tsunami that drastically reduces the size of population.
d. A small group of individuals from one population moving to a geographically distant site and starting a new population at that new location.
Genetic diversity increases with an increase in the number of genes in the population. Usually, the larger the population, more is genetic diversity. If due to any reason, the population size reduces, then a part of genetic diversity is lost.
Cross breeding between different individuals increases genetic diversity, whereas inbreeding reduces genetic diversity as no new genes enter into the population due to inbreeding.
Inbreeding is the mating of genetically related individuals, who share recent ancestry. Outbreeding is the mating between genetically unrelated individuals.
When new individuals enter a population, new genes are also introduced into the population. This also increases genetic diversity.
But, when a small part of a population goes on to raise a new population at distant site on its own, then this new population would have a reduced genetic diversity. This is because the individuals who left the original population represent only a part of the total genetic diversity of the original population.
Hence, the answers should be:
a. Inbreeding due to a small population that is geographically isolated. : This would result into a decrease in genetic diversity.
b. A 10,000 person population growing from the movement of 5,000 people into the population coming from another geographically isolated location. : This would result into an increase in genetic diversity.
c. A catastrophic tsunami that drastically reduces the size of population. : This would result into a decrease in genetic diversity.
d. A small group of individuals from one population moving to a geographically distant site and starting a new population at that new location. This would result into a decrease in genetic diversity.