How is disruptive selection depicted in a population's traits?

Disruptive selection is a form of natural selection that favors individuals at both extremes of a trait distribution over those with average traits. This means that in a population, individuals with traits that are significantly different from the mean will have a higher fitness compared to those with intermediate traits.

For example, if you consider a population of birds with various beak sizes, disruptive selection would favor both very small and very large beak sizes, as these sizes may offer distinct advantages in accessing different food sources, while individuals with average-sized beaks may not be as efficient at gathering food from either source. As a result, this selective pressure can lead to increased variability in the population's traits, potentially driving evolution and speciation by encouraging the divergence of subgroups with extreme traits.

In contrast, the other options do not accurately describe disruptive selection: favoring the average would align more with stabilizing selection, while leading to a loss of characteristics or reproductive isolation is more related to different evolutionary processes, such as genetic drift or speciation mechanisms. Thus, the depiction of disruptive selection clearly highlights the advantage of extreme traits.