Skip to main content
Ch. 56 - Conservation Biology and Global Change

Chapter 56, Problem 1

One characteristic that distinguishes a population in an extinction vortex from most other populations is that a. it is a rare, top-level predator. b, its effective population size is lower than its total population size. c. its genetic diversity is very low. d. it is not well adapted to edge conditions.

Verified Solution
Video duration:
1m
This video solution was recommended by our tutors as helpful for the problem above.
Was this helpful?

Video transcript

Hello everyone. And in today's video we have the following problem. The loss of genetic diversity in a population blank. The likelihood of its blank. And so this question is relating the genetic diversity of the population in terms of its ability to evolve and adapt to change. So let's quickly recall how these three values or these three characteristics are related. And so here we have it. We have the increasing the genetic diversity of the population or introducing new leal's and new traits increases the capacity of the population to evolve. And this increases also the capacity of the population to adapt to change or to survive certain disruptions. However if we lose or if we decrease that genetic diversity then the capacity of the population to evolve is going to decrease. And the capacity of this population then to adapt to change or to survive disruptions is going to decrease as well. So what this leaves us is that the loss of genetic diversity on a population is going to increase the likelihood of the population going extinct. Which is answer choice A And the reasoning behind this is that losing a leo's that could be used to adapt to changes in the population will lead to its extinction if these are the only viable alleles. And so that is why. Answer choice A is our final answer. And the response to this question. I really hope this video helped you and I hope to see you on the next one