AP BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Genetic drift can have major effects when a population is sharply reduced in size by a natural disaster (bottleneck effect) or when a small group splits off from the main population to found a colony (founder effect).

Detailed explanation-2: -Founder effect A change in the genetic composition of a population as a result of descending from a small number of colonizing individuals.

Detailed explanation-3: -Definition. A founder effect, as related to genetics, refers to the reduction in genomic variability that occurs when a small group of individuals becomes separated from a larger population.

Detailed explanation-4: -The difference between founder events and population bottlenecks is the type of event that causes them. A founder event occurs when a small group of individuals is separated from the Page 3 rest of the population, whereas a bottleneck effect occurs when most of the population is destroyed.

Detailed explanation-5: -Random forces lead to genetic drift Sometimes, there can be random fluctuations in the numbers of alleles in a population. These changes in relative allele frequency, called genetic drift, can either increase or decrease by chance over time.