Linkage disequilibrium is the nonrandom association among SNPs within a haplotype. Over time, would you expect linkage disequilibrium among markers to be maintained, to increase, or to decrease?

A) decrease, because random mutation will generate new SNPs that will give rise to new haplotypes
B) decrease, because crossing over will break up the physical linkage among markers
C) increase, because unequal crossing over between SNPs will decrease the physical distance between them
D) increase, because positive selection will cause the haplotype to become more common
E) be maintained, because there is no selective pressure to change the frequency of haplotypes in the population