Effective population

Posted by on March 28, 2004; This entry is filed under Uncategorized.
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Here is a informative site that discusses the various aspects of “Effective Population” (Ne) as opposed to census population. Since we talk about Y (non-recombinant) & mtDNA studies all the time, it is good to remember how small the average Ne really is (ergo, implications for genetic drift, etc.) for a fluctuating population (control-f “harmonic mean” in the linked page). From a sociological perspective, the implications of hyper-polygamous populations are also very interesting, as a skewed sex ratio drives the Ne down in comparison to the head count more than one might intuitively guess (eg; from the page linked, 96 cows + 4 bulls ~ 15 for effective size!).

Posted by razib at 08:02 AM

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