Final answer:
The alternative to racial classifications that maps the distribution of individual traits in geographic space is called population variation.
Step-by-step explanation:
The alternative to racial classifications that simply plots or maps the distribution of individual traits in geographic space is known as population variation.
Population variation refers to the geographic distribution of different phenotypes in a population. It describes how individuals in a population are arrayed over the area they inhabit and how different traits or characteristics vary across different geographic regions.
For example, warm-blooded mammals that live near the poles tend to be larger in size compared to their southern counterparts in order to conserve heat. This is an example of population variation.