Changes in the genetic makeup of a population affect the incidence of certain traits and diseases within the population. Beginning with a look at the abnormally high rate of a dangerous health condition in US Amish communities, this module explores forces that affect a population's gene pool. Among them are natural selection, gene flow, and two types of genetic drift: founder effects and bottleneck events. The Harvey-Weinberg Equilibrium equation is presented along with sample problems that show how to calculate the frequency of specific alleles in a population.