Is genetic variation the raw material for evolution?

Genetic variation is the raw material that evolution has to work with?

• Please explain this? explain why a population that is polymorphic at most loci would have a better chance of responding to environmental change than a population that is monomporphic at most loci

• Answer:

  Actually, genetic variation is the material on which natural selection acts. Mutation is the source of this variation, and together, the generation and selection of variants comprise evolution. In the absence of a novel mutation, a genetically diverse population will have some individuals which may fare better and some that fare worse than the average. In extreme conditions, only a few will survive, but their offspring will inherit the genes that enabled survival. Without variation in the population, there are no relative advantages.