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            I am working on a model that will show the effects of a bottleneck event on a population.  I want to be able to show that a change in the distribution of traits in a population can be driven by simple random events without trait selection playing a part at all.  I am starting simply, with a population of turtles that spawn new turtles that are identical to them at a set interval.  When the “bottleneck” button is pushed, all turtles in a certain area of the world will die, and the rest will continue to reproduce.  Currently, I am borrowing a few elements of Evan’s model, specifically the graph of trait distributions, to show the effects of the bottleneck.  I want to move towards a more visual model, probably using turtle color to represent traits, as well as a graph similar to the one in the Wolves and Sheep Predation model in the Netlogo library to show the relative abundance of each trait in the population.  I also plan to try and have the turtles “mate” instead of spontaneously producing offspring, and having the traits of the offspring be dependent on the traits of their parents in a simple Mendelian inheritance pattern, mostly to bring the model a little closer to an actual biological context.  I may see if I can include a feature that introduces a random mutation to see what that does to the population, and if I’m feeling particularly ambitious, I may add a feature that does include selection (some sort of probability of dying depending on color?) so the effects of selection can be compared to the effects of a bottleneck event in the same model.