Of the factors that can result in evolution within a population (microevolution), the only one that is likely to lead to adaptive change is

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When evaluating factors that can drive evolution within a population (microevolution), it's important to separate what can cause adaptive change from what generally causes change without technical adaptation.
Option 1: Mutation. While new mutations provide the raw material of variation, most mutations are neutral or deleterious rather than advantageous. Therefore, mutation alone does not reliably produce adaptive change across the population.
Option 2: Genetic drift due to a bottleneck. A bottleneck can reduce genetic diversity through random sampling. This process changes allele frequencies but is not guided by fitness, so it is not inherently adaptive and may even hinder adaptation by removing beneficial alleles.
Option 3: Natural selection. This mechanism increases the frequency of alleles that confer higher fitness in a given environment, directly shaping traits toward adaptation. It is the classic driver of adaptive change in populations.
Option 4: Gene flow due to immigration and emigration. Gene flow can introduce or remove alleles between populations, which can either facilitate or hinder adaptation depending on the context, but it is not specifically a process that reliably produces adaptive changes within the population in a given environment. It tends to homogenize populations rather than consistently promote adaptation.

BIOL 1009 (001-006/050-055) Final Exam

Of the factors that can result in evolution within a population (microevolution), the only one that is likely to lead to adaptive change is

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