Question

Which would stop Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium from happening?

A. There is no immigration into the ecosystem.
B. The organisms choose mates completely randomly.
C. Some individuals produce more offspring than others.
D. Each allele gives an equal chance for survival.

Answer 1

C. The Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium will effectively stop once some individuals produce more offspring than others. Note that this is a principle that involves genotype frequencies in a certain population, and genotype frequencies come from producing genetics; not immigration, choosing mates and survival.

Answer 2

C. Some individuals produce more offspring than others.

Step-by-step explanation:

Random mating between organisms, absence of any factor of evolution (mutation, recombination, gene flow, migration etc.) and absence of any survival advantage of specific alleles serve to maintain the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium over generations. However, reproductive fitness, that is, ability of some organisms to produce more offspring than others would increase their number of population over generations. This would lead to increased frequency of their alleles in the gene pool and deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium.