Question

Human actions often break large areas if forest or grassland into small remnant parcels that support fewer individuals and ae far apart from one another. Predict how gene flow, genetic drift, and extinction risk would differ between the original and the remnant populations.

Answer 1

Gene flow will be restricted

Gene drift will be higher than in larger populations

Extinction rate will be increased due to the reduction in genetic diversity

Explanation:

Gene flow is defined as the transference of genetic material among populations. In isolated populations, the gene low is null and thereby they have different allelic frequencies, while populations that share genetic material tend to have the same allelic frequencies.

Genetic drift is the change in the allelic frequencies in a population as a result of random sampling. In small populations such as those living in parcels, the genetic drift is higher than in larger populations.

Extinction is the continuous declination in the number of organisms of a particular group (for example, a population or a species), that inevitably leads to the disappearance of this group. In small populations, the likelihood of extinction will be higher than in larger populations, due to the lesser genetic variation and higher genetic drift.