What genetic process can occur due to environmental factors affecting allele frequencies in a population?

The genetic process that can occur due to environmental factors affecting allele frequencies in a population is natural selection. Natural selection operates when certain traits confer advantages or disadvantages that influence the reproductive success of individuals in a specific environment. For instance, if an environmental change occurs, such as a shift in climate or the introduction of a new predator, individuals with alleles that better suit the new conditions are more likely to survive and reproduce. Over generations, these advantageous alleles become more prevalent in the population, altering allele frequencies. This adaptive process highlights the relationship between environmental pressures and the evolution of populations.

While gene flow involves the transfer of alleles between populations, it is primarily driven by migration rather than direct environmental influences. Genetic drift refers to random changes in allele frequencies, particularly in small populations, and is not necessarily influenced by environmental factors. Mutation introduces new alleles into a population but does not itself directly result from environmental pressures affecting allele frequencies. Thus, natural selection is the most pertinent process in this context, directly linking environmental factors with genetic variations in populations.