1. - Natural Selection. Natural Selection leads to an evolutionary change when some individuals with certain traits in a population have a higher survival and reproductive rate than others and pass on these inheritable genetic features to their offspring.

Which evolutionary mechanism increases genetic variation in a population?

Mutation is an evolutionary mechanism that increases genetic diversity in populations. Despite the fact that it increases genetic diversity, mutation is random with respect to the affected allele's impact on the fitness of the individual.

What causes inherited genetic variation?

Genetic variation can be caused by mutation (which can create entirely new alleles in a population), random mating, random fertilization, and recombination between homologous chromosomes during meiosis (which reshuffles alleles within an organism's offspring).