What process allows organisms to adapt to their environments?

Natural selection is the process through which organisms adapt to their environments over time. This concept is grounded in the idea that individuals with traits better suited for their environment tend to survive and reproduce more successfully than those with less advantageous traits. These favorable traits become more common in the population over generations as they are passed down to offspring.

For example, in a population of animals, those that can camouflage themselves may evade predators more effectively than those that cannot, allowing them to live longer and produce more offspring. Consequently, the trait for camouflage may increase in frequency in the population. Natural selection is a key mechanism of evolution, driving the diversification of life as organisms adapt to various ecological niches.

In contrast, while genetic mutation introduces new variations into a gene pool, it is not a direct process that leads to adaptation; rather, it is the raw material upon which natural selection acts. Artificial selection involves human intervention in the breeding of organisms and does not operate independently within nature, while ecological succession refers to the process of change in species composition in a given area over time and is not directly related to the adaptation of individual organisms to their environments.