Question

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?
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

Answer 1

Yes the following statements about her trout is likely true 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.

Explanation:

The effect of genetic drift can be seen in all populations but the most is seen in small population. The change in allele frequency due to the sampling error would lead to evolution of the species.

Bottleneck effect is when a population gets reduced due to some natural disaster. Her friends were not right about bottleneck effect.

So it is clear that no bottleneck effect will occur as each pond have different chance or rate of mutation and the change in alleles will be different. The  trouts will evolve independently in the different ponds and pass on the traits to their progeny.

Genetic drift does not take into account for the harm or benefit of the alleles that are passed on.