The founder effect and bottleneck are examples of A - VCE - SSCE Biology - Question 16 - 2006 - Paper 1

The founder effect and bottleneck are both examples of genetic drift, which refers to the changes in the allele frequencies of a population due to random sampling of organisms.

• Founder Effect: Occurs when a small group of individuals becomes isolated from a larger population, leading to a loss of genetic variation and potentially different allele frequencies in the new population.
• Bottleneck Effect: Happens when a population's size is significantly reduced for at least one generation, reducing genetic diversity and affecting gene frequencies.

Both scenarios illustrate how random events can influence the genetic structure of populations over time.