Two individuals leave a large mainland population and establish a small colony on a previously uninhabited island.
Two individuals colonize an island. Which best describes the genetic outcome on the island?
- A
Migration: continuous gene flow homogenizes populations
- B
Sexual selection: only fit individuals reproduce on the island
- C
Bottleneck: same population reduced by environmental disaster
- Dcheck_circle
Founder effect: allele frequencies in colony differ from mainland by chance
Explanation
The founder effect describes how a small group establishing a new population carries only a fraction of the source population's variation, leading to allele frequency differences and reduced diversity by chance.