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As population _____________________ through natural selection and drift, populations become_____________________ - incidental byproduct of evolutionary change within populations

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Final answer:

Genetic drift is a random change in allele frequencies in a population. It can occur through phenomena like the founder effect and the bottleneck effect, resulting in reduced genetic variation. Genetic drift is more pronounced in small and isolated populations.

Step-by-step explanation:

Genetic drift is a phenomenon that occurs when allele frequencies in a population change randomly with no advantage to the population. It is the effect of chance on a population's gene pool. Small and isolated populations are more susceptible to genetic drift, which can lead to significant changes in a population's genome.

One example of genetic drift is the founder effect, which occurs when a small group of individuals migrates away from a larger population and establishes a new population. The new population may have an unrepresentative set of alleles, resulting in reduced genetic variation.

Another example is the bottleneck effect, which occurs when a large portion of the population is killed due to natural events like wildfires or hurricanes. The surviving population may have a different genetic structure compared to the original population.

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