why does an advantageous trait increase in a population over time? key terms: variation, population, gene pool, fitness, relative frequency.

Evolution is the gradual process resulting in the changes in the genetic material of a population over generations. The mechanism that Darwin proposed for evolution is the process of natural selection. Natural selection is the key mechanism of evolution which increases the frequency of advantageous alleles in a population. Due to the limited resources in nature, organism with heritable traits favoring their survival and reproduction produce more offspring. It causes the population to become adapted to their environment and results in organisms with better survival ability and reproduction. These traits become heritable due to the reproductive advantage and are passed from the parents to the offspring. Over generations, the advantageous heritable trait becomes dominant in the population. It is responsible for the variation in the gene pool of the population which increases their fitness.