Final answer:
To understand the prevalence of a trait in a population, we should study its impact on reproductive success and survivability, as natural selection favors traits that offer advantages in these areas, leading to more offspring with these traits. Population genetics helps us comprehend the genetic basis of such traits and how they evolve over time. The correct option is D.
Step-by-step explanation:
If we want to understand why a particular trait is common in a particular population, we should study how that trait might influence an organism's reproductive success and survivability. This is because traits that enhance an organism's ability to survive and reproduce will likely result in more offspring.
Those offspring can then inherit the advantageous traits, making them more common in the population over time. This process, known as natural selection, is a key mechanism of evolution. For example, a giraffe with a longer neck can reach food resources that others cannot, providing a survival advantage that can lead to greater reproductive success.
The study of how selective forces change a population through changes in allele and genotypic frequencies is known as population genetics. It is important to consider a population over time to understand the genetic basis of population-wide traits and to determine whether traits have a genetic basis and the degree to which inbreeding might affect a population.
When considering the adaptation of populations to their environments, scientists observe the genetic makeup and how it influences the physical and behavioral characteristics that become prevalent. These evolutionary processes explain why more fit individuals are more likely to have more offspring, why alleles that confer beneficial traits are selected for, and why some deleterious mutations are maintained in the population.