adaptive value(Darwinian fitness, fitness, selective value) The balance of genetic advantages and disadvantages that determines the ability of an individual organism (or genotype) to survive and reproduce in a given environment. The environment, and the competition or struggle for survival within it, determine which individuals are fittest to achieve this, the ‘fittest’ being the individual (or genotype) that produces the largest number of offspring that later reach reproductive maturity. Such natural selection has been described as ‘the survival of the fittest’. See also selection.

adaptive value (Darwinian fitness, fitness, selective value) The balance of genetic advantages and disadvantages that determines the ability of an individual organism (or genotype) to survive and reproduce in a given environment. The environment, and the competition or struggle for survival within it, determine which individuals are fittest to achieve this, the ‘fittest’ being the individual (or genotype) that produces the largest number of offspring that later reach reproductive maturity. Such natural selection has been described as the ‘survival of the fittest’. See also SELECTION.

adaptive value (Darwinian fitness, fitness, selective value) The balance of genetic advantages and disadvantages that determines the ability of an individual organism (or genotype) to survive and reproduce in a given environment. The ‘fittest’ is the individual (or genotype) that produces the largest number of offspring that survive to maturity and reproduce.