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If the population count of your species drops below the sustainable level in your immediate vicinity (within a reasonable distance for members of the species to
by chiph 9y ago
If the population count of your species drops below the sustainable level in your immediate vicinity (within a reasonable distance for members of the species to meet & mate) then that pocket of individuals dies out. And then there's genetic diversity - the number I have heard quoted for humans is 40,000.
Which is how many people Elon Musk & Jeff Bezos would have to get to Mars or the Moon to create a genetically stable population.
- Retric 9y agoHumans have unusually poor genetic diversity. It is estimated that this is from one or more recent bottlenecks where the population got very low. We also have slow reproductive rates which make it harder to weed out genetic issues. Wild mice on the other hand can have stable populations from a very small number of random individuals. But, again this just comes back to extinction, and super volcanoes don't kill off most species. Even though it may be a really bad time for the survivors.
- chiph 9y agoIf you've ever watched James Burke's "Connections" series (and you should - it's excellent), one of the things he mentions is that the introduction of the steam engine increased the genetic diversity in the UK, because now you weren't limited to dating people from your local town or village. You could be 50 miles away in less than a day and meet all-new people.