A bird species' population crashes from 10⁵ to 50 individuals after a hurricane and rebuilds. The most likely genetic consequence is
- A
Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium restored within one generation
- B
Predictable directional selection favoring storm-resistant traits
- Ccheck_circle
Reduced allelic diversity due to genetic drift in the small population
- D
Increased mutation rate caused by environmental stress
Explanation
Bottlenecks cause sampling-error loss of rare alleles → reduced diversity. Stress doesn't reliably raise mutation rate; selection requires existing heritable variation; H-W needs LARGE population.