A Farmer Decides to Go into the Business of Raising

Multiple Choice

A farmer decides to go into the business of raising trout for tourists who enjoy fishing. She builds six trout ponds and stocks each of them with trout from genetically identical stock. Her friends tell her that because she started each pond with just a few trout, she has created a bottleneck effect and her trout populations are likely to become genetically different rapidly. Which of the following statements about her trout is likely true?

A) Because they are all genetically alike, they will all remain alike even though the ponds are different.
B) Because each population started off with just a few individuals, every mutation that occurs will have a huge impact on the population, so they are likely to evolve in different directions quickly.
C) Because the ponds are different and the populations are likely to experience different mutations, the populations will likely diverge evolutionarily, but only over many generations.
D) The increase in genetic diversity caused by sexual reproduction will promote evolutionary divergence over time.