noun
effective population size
Technical term in population genetics and conservation biology. Refers to the size of an idealized population that would experience the same amount of genetic drift or inbreeding as the actual population.
有効個体数が小さいと、遺伝的多様性が失われやすい。
When the effective population size is small, genetic diversity is easily lost.
保全生物学では、有効個体数を推定することが重要である。
In conservation biology, estimating the effective population size is important.
個体数 simply means 'population size' (census size), while 有効個体数 is a specific genetic concept that accounts for factors like unequal sex ratios and variation in reproductive success.
Compound of 有効 (effective) + 個体数 (population size). A direct translation of the English term 'effective population size', coined in population genetics.