Question

The Channel Islands are a series of small islands off the California coast. Each island has a genetically distinct population of foxes. Compare the population of foxes on one of these islands to the population of foxes in the forests of mainland California. Which is more likely to be impacted by genetic drift? Which is more likely to be at Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium?

Answer 1

The fox population on the Islands experiences genetic drift whereas foxes in the forests has Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium.

Step-by-step explanation:

The fox population on the Islands experiences genetic drift because there is no chance of introduction of different type of foxes in these Islands which experiences less variation in the population of already existing foxes. Genetic drift is the change that occur in the frequency of an existing gene allele in a population due to random sampling of organisms. Genetic drift may cause gene variants to disappear completely with the passage of time which leads to reduce genetic variation. The foxes that is located in the mainland forest experiences Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium.