What are the advantages and disadvantages of sexual reproduction?

Sexual reproduction has many evolutionary advantages. These include: (1) a genetic variation in offspring that is not seen with asexual reproduction. (2) The variation allows the species to adapt to changes in environment, and, thus gives them a survival advantage. (3) A disease is less likely to affect an entire species if all of the individuals are genetically different. These advantages not seen in species that reproduce asexually as in asexual reproduction all the offspring are genetically identical to the parent and are therefore equally vulnerable to disease and changes in environment.The disadvantages of sexual reproduction include: (1) Finding a mate uses valuable resources (such as time and energy). (2) It is not possible for an isolated individual to reproduce sexually. As asexual reproduction can be done by an individual the above problems are not present. Thus, asexual reproduction may allow the survival of a species in conditions that would result in extinction for sexually reproducing species.