What does resource availability influence in natural selection?

• A. Survival and reproduction
• B. Only birth rates
• C. Color change in organisms
• D. Size of the genome

Answer: (A)

Resource availability shapes fitness by determining who can survive and reproduce in a given environment. When resources are limited, individuals face competition for food, water, shelter, and mates. Those with traits that help them obtain resources more efficiently, avoid predators, or endure scarcity have a better chance of surviving to reproductive age and producing offspring. Because these offspring inherit the advantageous traits, those traits become more common in the population over generations. So, resource availability directly influences who survives and who reproduces, driving evolutionary change through natural selection. Birth rates alone don’t capture fitness, color changes aren’t a direct consequence of resource levels, and genome size isn’t dictated by resource availability in the typical course of natural selection.