Population Genetics: Fish Pond Simulator
Compare the change in allele frequencies between the large and small population. Which population changed more, and why?
Did either population approach fixation? (Fixation occurs when one allele reaches an allele frequency = 1) Explain why drift is more pronounced in small populations.
Why do the two drift trials show different outcomes even with the same allele frequencies and equal fitness?
How does random sampling contribute to genetic drift over many generations?
Which population is not in Hardy-Weinberg? Which condition of Hardy-Weinberg is not being met? Make sure to include the p-values from your chi-square tests to support your answer.
How did the allele frequencies change over the 150 generations when R was beneficial?
Why does the R allele increase in a predictable (non-random) pattern in this model?
What happened to the rr genotype over time, and why?
Compare this model to the model you ran in part 1 (where you changed the population size, but all the genotype fitness values were equal). What differences do you notice?
What happened to the R allele when the environment changed (and the fitness of the alleles flipped)? Did the pattern follow drift or selection?
Explain why rr became the most common genotype by the end of the simulation.
How does this model illustrate that fitness depends on the environment?
Compare the two selection scenarios (trials 2a and 2b). How quickly did the population respond to environmental change?