Final answer:
Natural selection relates to environmental factors by facilitating the increased frequency of advantageous traits that help organisms survive and reproduce. Selective pressures, such as predators or changes in resources, determine which traits are advantageous, and these pressures can change due to environmental shifts, leading to different evolutionary outcomes like antibiotic resistance in bacteria.
Step-by-step explanation:
Natural selection is the process by which certain traits become more or less common in a population due to the effects of environmental factors. The traits that enable organisms to be more successful in their environment tend to be passed on to the next generation. For example, if a selective pressure is a predator, animals that are better at evading predation will survive and reproduce, thereby passing on their traits.
Selective pressures can change with shifts in the environment, such as climate change, introduction of new species, removal of species, human activities, or changes in available resources. Positive selection occurs when an environmental change favors a particular variation, increasing its frequency within the population. Conversely, negative selection removes harmful variations from the population.
An example of natural selection is the development of antibiotic resistance in bacteria. When an antibiotic is used, it creates a selective pressure that kills susceptible bacteria, while bacteria with resistance genes survive and reproduce. Over time, the antibiotic-resistant bacteria become more common.