Question

What term describes the situation when a disaster reduces a population to a small handful, which rarely represents the actual genetic makeup of the initial population, resulting in smaller genetic variation among the surviving individuals?

Answer 1

The term that describes the situation when a disaster reduces a population to a small handful, resulting in smaller genetic variation among the surviving individuals, is called the bottleneck effect.

Step-by-step explanation:

The term that describes the situation when a disaster reduces a population to a small handful, resulting in smaller genetic variation among the surviving individuals, is called the bottleneck effect.

When a disaster randomly kills a large portion of a population, it reduces the gene pool, causing the surviving individuals to have a genetic makeup that is not representative of the initial population. This leads to a decrease in genetic diversity among the surviving individuals.

For example, if an earthquake wipes out a population of rabbits and only a few survive, the genetic variation in the surviving rabbits will be reduced.