AP BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Founder Effect Consequence for Biogeography. Biogeography starts at the colonization event. The term “founder effect” was first introduced by Mayr (1954) to describe the genetic accidents inherent in small population size that may be important during colonization.

Detailed explanation-2: -A founder effect occurs when a new colony is started by a few members of the original population. This small population size means that the colony may have: reduced genetic variation from the original population. a non-random sample of the genes in the original population.

Detailed explanation-3: -The founder effect is an example of genetic drift because when a population separates from the rest of the members of their species, the frequency of different genes and traits will shift based on the genetic makeup of the founder population.

Detailed explanation-4: -The founder effect is a special case of genetic drift, occurring when a small group in a population splinters off from the original population and forms a new one.

Detailed explanation-5: -One special case of strong genetic drift is the founder effect, in which a population is established by a small number of founding individuals from a much larger ancestral population. Strong genetic drift in the founder population could lead to an immediate evolutionary divergence from the ancestral population.