The Barton Springs salamander is an endangered species found only in a single spring in the city of Austin, Texas. There is growing concern that a chemical spill on a nearby freeway could pollute the spring and wipe out the species. To provide a source of salamanders to repopulate the spring in the event of such a catastrophe, a proposal has been made to establish a captive breeding population of the salamander in a local zoo. The zoo was asked to provide a plan for establishing this captive breeding population, with the goal of maintaining as much of the genetic variation of the species as possible in the captive population. What factors are likely to lead to a loss of genetic variation in the captive population?
a. increased rate of mutation
b. a founder effect
c. reduced genetic drift over time
d. a lack of inbreeding
What strategy would likely be effective in mitigating the loss of genetic variation in the captive population?
a. keeping the sex ratio as close to 50:50 as possible
b. stopping gene flow to and from the captive population
c. regularly mating individuals that are related
d. keeping the captive population as small as possible