A group of finches live on a small, isolate island. One day, a few finches travel to a distant island and start a new population of finches. This type of change in a population is called what?

• A. Speciation
• B. Founder effect
• C. Bottleneck effect
• D. Genetic drift

Answer: (B)

Verified step by step guidance

1. Understand the concept of genetic drift, which is a mechanism of evolution that involves random changes in the frequency of alleles in a population.
2. Learn about the founder effect, a specific type of genetic drift that occurs when a small group of individuals breaks off from a larger population to establish a new population.
3. Recognize that the founder effect can lead to reduced genetic variation in the new population because the small group may not represent the full genetic diversity of the original population.
4. Differentiate between the founder effect and the bottleneck effect, another form of genetic drift, which occurs when a population's size is significantly reduced for at least one generation.
5. Apply this understanding to the problem: when a few finches travel to a distant island and start a new population, this scenario is an example of the founder effect, as the new population is established by a small number of individuals from the original population.