TLS Online TPP Program

#Question id: 13132


Biologists performed an experiment with flies to examine the effects of population size on the maintenance of genetic variation  and  on  egg-to-adult survival.  From  a  large  source  population, they  randomly  assigned  eggs  to  three experimental  populations  of  size  N,  equal  to  20,  60,  and0100.  For  later  generations,  they  collected  N  eggs  from each  population  and  moved  them  into  identical  vials  that  co0ntained  f2re0sh  me4d0ium.  Th6e0y  coun8te0d  the  number  of adult flies that emerged and used tissue samples from the adults for genetic analyses. Genetic variation was measured by  scoring  alleles  at  several  polymorphic  loci  and  expressed  as  the  average  number  of  alleles  at  those  loci.  The results are summarized in Figure 1 and Figure 2 below.

Which other process appears to have substantially influenced the outcome of this experiment? 

#Unit 10. Ecological Principles
  1. Density-dependent survival  
  2. Frequency-dependent fecundity 
  3. Niche partitioning
  4. Spatial heterogeneity