G. (10 pts.) Consider two populations of song sparrows that live on Lummi Island

Question

G. (10 pts.) Consider two populations of song sparrows that live on Lummi Island and Waldron Island in Puget Sound. The Lummi Island population experienced a disease epidemic, so that population size fell and then recovered, with these numbers of breeding adults in four successive years: 180, 40, 120, 180. The song sparrow population on the smaller Waldron Island remained uninfected, so the number of breeding adults stayed at 110 over this four year period.

            Which population is expected to be more affected by genetic drift over this period of time? In quantitative terms, by how much will the impact of drift differ for the two populations?

Explanation / Answer

* The population in smaller Waldong island remain unaffected, and due to the small population size, the impact of genetic drift is more on them, or the organisms lose heterozygosity faster than the other group.

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