Final answer:
Darwin's principle describing how heritable traits that provide a survival and reproductive advantage are more likely to be passed on is known as natural selection, which is the fundamental mechanism driving adaptive evolution.
Step-by-step explanation:
Charles Darwin's principle of an evolutionary process in which heritable traits that increase an organism's chance of survival and reproduction are more likely to be passed on to succeeding generations is called natural selection. This concept was proposed by Darwin after observing that organisms inherit traits from their parents, that more offspring are produced than can survive due to limited resources resulting in a struggle for survival, and that offspring vary in their inherited traits. Through this process, individuals with traits that provide an advantage in their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce, leading to these favorable traits becoming more common in the population over time. This process, which Darwin also described as descent with modification, is the primary mechanism for adaptive evolution.