Within a forest ecosystem, there is a large amount
of diversity among members of a warbler species.
Of the following stages of meiosis illustrated for a
typical cell, which contributes most to diversity
among the warblers?
During meiosis, many processes occur which result in variation. Egg and sperm cells are unique since chromosomes seperate independently (or randomly), as well as when when individual chromatids seperate randomly.
These two processes are shown in anaphase I and anaphase II. Despite this randomness, there is still a small chance that two sex cells become identical if these were the only processes.
Most genetic variation is the result of the recombination of chromosomes during prophase I.
In a process named crossing over, chromosomes exchange genetic information with their homolog.
Chromosomes contain many bases, so the random exchange that occurs here results in unique combinations of chromosomes.