Poor but prosperous: how island biota survive genetic impoverishment. University of Antwerp
Evolutionary ecology group (EVECO), Systemic Physiological and Ecotoxicological Research (SPHERE), Functional Morphology
Although often genetically impoverished due to founder effects, inbreeding, genetic drift and sequential bottlenecks, island populations tend to reach high densities and manage to adapt to the local environment. This is paradoxical because low allelic diversity can lead to inbreeding depression (reduction in fitness due to deleterious recessive alleles), and, on a longer timescale, to reduced genetic adaptability of populations. How and why do ...