Three things I learned from the article this week were the necessary number of a species needed to repopulate, the importance of genetic diversity, and the bottleneck issue involving cheetahs. As stated by the author, it takes more than two of a kind to produce a sizable population. This is because a lack of diversity that comes from only two organisms leaves a group open to threats of disease, disasters, or natural selection. Genetic diversity is attained when there is enough variation within a species that at least some are able to survive and reproduce in the event of some misfortune. Cheetah in particular face this issue with having 99% similar DNA between two individuals., This means if any of them catch a fatal disease, about 99% in total will also.
This relates to APES with regard to our recent discussion of the bottleneck effect and biodiversity. The bottleneck effect, as we learned, is usually caused by human intervention in the form of poaching, farming, or habitat destruction. These activities combine to not only affect individual species, but entire ecosystems. Biodiversity is extremely important when considering how a food web remains in balance. In class we learned the effect and saw examples of how a collapse can affect animals, plants, and humans.
Do species naturally become more diverse over time? I wonder this especially with humans, They say one day all people will look nearly the same, which makes for a good TIME magazine cover, but is it true? And if it is, does that go for genetics as well? Will all our DNA become so similar one day that we just create a bottleneck effect accidentally? I guess this is really more than one question, but its all kinda one idea.
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