What is the bottleneck effect in a biological context?

The bottleneck effect refers to a significant reduction in the size of a population due to environmental events or other changes that drastically decrease the number of individuals. This phenomenon leads to a loss of genetic diversity because the surviving population is composed of only a small subset of the original gene pool. When the population rebounds, the genetic variation is often limited, which can affect the population's ability to adapt to environmental changes and can also increase the risks of inbreeding.

This concept is critical in understanding how genetic diversity is essential for the adaptability and survival of a population, as reduced diversity means that fewer traits are available to respond to changes or stresses in their environment. It highlights the impacts of random events on evolutionary processes, emphasizing the importance of maintaining healthy population sizes to preserve genetic variation.