Question

Habitat loss, natural catastrophes, and/or excessive harvesting of a species often result in

A) increased gene flow.
B) population bottlenecks.
C) increased mutation rates.
D) artificial selection.
E) increased fitness of individuals.

Answer 1

Habitat loss, natural catastrophes, and excessive harvesting usually lead to population bottlenecks, which significantly reduce a species' population size and genetic diversity.

Step-by-step explanation:

Habitat loss, natural catastrophes, and excessive harvesting often result in population bottlenecks. A population bottleneck occurs when a significant percentage of a species' population or genetic diversity is lost. Situations like habitat destruction or destruction from disasters like hurricanes or lava flows lead to this phenomenon.

This is because such events kill individuals indiscriminately without regard to their genetic traits, greatly reducing genetic variation and potentially altering the genetic structure of the surviving population. These events are a form of genetic drift, specifically the bottleneck effect, which drastically reduces population size and genetic diversity.