Final answer:
Natural selection is the principle by which heritable traits that enhance survival and reproduction become more common in successive generations of a population, leading to evolutionary change.
Step-by-step explanation:
The principle that describes how inherited traits that are beneficial for an organism's survival and reproduction in a particular environment are more likely to be passed on to succeeding generations is known as natural selection. In the context of natural selection, those individuals with advantageous traits have a higher chance to survive, reproduce, and subsequently pass those traits on. This leads to an increase in the frequency of those advantageous traits in the population over time.
Evolution occurs through the process of natural selection, which can be influenced by various selective pressures such as predators, food availability, or environmental conditions. It is key to note that it is the population that evolves, not individual organisms, and this process happens over many generations as advantageous traits increase in frequency due to the greater reproductive success of the individuals carrying them.