What genetic concept explains how traits are passed from parents to offspring?

The concept that explains how traits are passed from parents to offspring is inheritance. Inheritance refers to the process by which genetic information is transmitted from one generation to the next. This process involves the passing of alleles, which are the different forms of genes, from parents to their offspring during reproduction.

Inheritance can be observed through patterns like dominant and recessive traits, where specific alleles may mask the expression of others. The foundational principles of inheritance were first articulated by Gregor Mendel in the 19th century, through his experiments with pea plants, where he identified predictable patterns of trait transmission. This understanding is crucial for fields like genetics, agriculture, and even medicine, as it helps predict the likelihood of certain traits appearing in future generations.

The other options relate to broader biological processes. Genetic drift refers to random changes in allele frequencies in a population, often due to chance events. Natural selection is a mechanism that explains how certain traits become more or less common in a population based on their advantages or disadvantages in survival and reproduction. Ecosystem dynamics deals with the interactions between living organisms and their environment and does not directly pertain to the heredity of specific traits.