Final answer:
Genetic drift is a random process that can have powerful effects on a population over many generations. It occurs when certain individuals in a population contribute more offspring to the next generation than others due to chance events, such as natural disasters. This can result in significant changes in the population's genetic makeup.
Step-by-step explanation:
Genetic drift is a random process that can have powerful effects on a population over many generations. It occurs when certain individuals in a population contribute more offspring to the next generation than others due to chance events. These chance events could be caused by natural disasters, such as a hurricane or earthquake, that result in a large number of individuals being killed at random. As a result, the genetic structure of the surviving individuals becomes the genetic structure of the entire population, which can lead to significant changes in the population's genetic makeup. For example, if a white rabbit population is affected by a storm that kills all the white rabbits, the allele for white fur may diminish or disappear in the population.