Evolution Genetic Drift Simulation Reserve Descriptions Draft Part 1

When designing these reserves, my goal was for the subpopulations, or total reserve, to be highly connected in order to create a larger breeding ground to maintain heterozygosity and minimize genetic drift. The advantage of having subpopulations is that if one section had the loss of an allele, the whole population does not suffer. Yet, smaller subpopulations are at higher risk for genetic drift. This is because smaller populations have a greater chance of an allele being lost, altering the gene pool. The advantage of the reserve being one single unit is the larger breeding ground. This encourages heterozygosity due to the increased amount of interactions between the population. The disadvantage about this style of reserve shape is that if an allele is lost, it is lost in the whole population. Knowing all of the pros and cons of reserve shapes, I intended to create a perfect balance of subpopulations and a single unit reserve.