When a Population Passes Through a Bottleneck, Its N_e

Question

When a population passes through a bottleneck, its Ne
A) may remain low after the population recovers.
B) is not affected.
C) increases.
D) is lower before the population decline.
E) none of the above

Accepted Answer

A population bottleneck can lead to a reduced effective population size (N_e) that may remain low even after the population size recovers, due to the loss of genetic diversity and potential inbreeding effects.