Question

Describe TWO alternatives to natural selection that drive evolution, that is, two things that cause populations to change over time that DO NOT involve natural selection (individuals being better able to survive in an environment and produce more offspring).

Answer 1

Alternatives to natural selection that drive evolution include genetic drift, which affects allele frequencies due to random chance, and gene flow, which is the transfer of alleles due to migration.

Step-by-step explanation:

Two alternatives to natural selection that drive evolution, and result in changes in populations over time, are genetic drift and gene flow.

Genetic drift refers to changes in the allele frequencies of a population due to random events. This can lead to significant evolutionary changes, especially in small populations, where chance occurrences can cause some alleles to become more or less common in the gene pool.

Gene flow, also known as migration, occurs when individuals move into or out of a population. This movement can introduce new alleles to a population or remove them, altering the genetic makeup of the population and potentially changing the population's allele frequencies. Unlike natural selection, gene flow is not directly related to the adaptiveness of the traits.