Search results for "ECOLOGICAL SPECIATION"
showing 10 items of 15 documents
Understanding processes at the origin of species flocks with a focus on the marine Antarctic fauna
2017
Species flocks (SFs) fascinate evolutionary biologists who wonder whether such striking diversification can be driven by normal evolutionary processes. Multiple definitions of SFs have hindered the study of their origins. Previous studies identified a monophyletic taxon as a SF if it displays high speciosity in an area in which it is endemic (criterion 1), high ecological diversity among species (criterion 2), and if it dominates the habitat in terms of biomass (criterion 3); we used these criteria in our analyses. Our starting hypothesis is that normal evolutionary processes may provide a sufficient explanation for most SFs. We thus clearly separate each criterion and identify which biolog…
Postcopulatory sexual selection generates speciation phenotypes in Drosophila.
2013
Background: Identifying traits that reproductively isolate species and the selective forces underlying their divergence is a central goal of evolutionary biology and speciation research. There is growing recognition that postcopulatory sexual selection which can drive rapid diversification of interacting ejaculate and female reproductive tract traits that mediate sperm competition may be an engine of speciation. Conspecific sperm precedence (CSP) is a taxonomically widespread form of reproductive isolation but the selective causes and divergent traits responsible for CSP are poorly understood. Results: To test the hypothesis that postcopulatory sexual selection can generate reproductive iso…
Fine-Scale Population Differences in Atlantic Cod Reproductive Success: A Potential Mechanism for Ecological Speciation in a Marine Fish
2018
Abstract Successful resource‐management and conservation outcomes ideally depend on matching the spatial scales of population demography, local adaptation, and threat mitigation. For marine fish with high dispersal capabilities, this remains a fundamental challenge. Based on daily parentage assignments of more than 4,000 offspring, we document fine‐scaled temporal differences in individual reproductive success for two spatially adjacent (<10 km) populations of a broadcast‐spawning marine fish. Distinguished by differences in genetics and life history, Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) from inner‐ and outer‐fjord populations were allowed to compete for mating and reproductive opportunities. After …
Water temperature, not fish morph, determines parasite infections of sympatric Icelandic threespine sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus)
2013
Parasite communities of fishes are known to respond directly to the abiotic environment of the host, for example, to water quality and water temperature. Biotic factors are also important as they affect the exposure profile through heterogeneities in parasite distribution in the environment. Parasites in a particular environment may pose a strong selection on fish. For example, ecological differences in selection by parasites have been hypothesized to facilitate evolutionary differentiation of freshwater fish morphs specializing on different food types. However, as parasites may also respond directly to abiotic environment the parasite risk does not depend only on biotic features of the hos…
The role of parasitism in adaptive radiations – when might parasites promote and when might they constrain ecological speciation?
2012
Research on speciation and adaptive radiation has flourished during the past decades, yet factors underlying initiation of reproductive isolation often remain unknown. Parasites represent important selective agents and have received renewed attention in speciation research. We review the literature on parasite-mediated divergent selection in context of ecological speciation and present empirical evidence for three nonexclusive mechanisms by which parasites might facilitate speciation: reduced viability or fecundity of immigrants and hybrids, assortative mating as a pleiotropic by-product of host adaptation, and ecologically-based sexual selection. We emphasise the lack of research on specia…
Whole-Genome Re-Sequencing Data to Infer Historical Demography and Speciation Processes in Land Snails: the Study of Two Candidula Sister Species
2021
Despite the global biodiversity of terrestrial gastropods and their ecological and economic importance, the genomic basis of ecological adaptation and speciation in land snail taxa is still largely unknown. Here, we combined whole-genome re-sequencing with population genomics to evaluate the historical demography and the speciation process of two closely related species of land snails from western Europe, Candidula unifasciata and C. rugosiuscula. Historical demographic analysis indicated fluctuations in the size of ancestral populations, probably driven by Pleistocene climatic fluctuations. Although the current population distributions of both species do not overlap, our approximate Bayesi…
Niche filling slows the diversification of Himalayan songbirds.
2013
In Himalayan songbirds, the speciation rate is ultimately set by ecological competition, rather than by the rate of acquisition of reproductive isolation. The beginnings of adaptive radiation and speciation have been widely studied — in Darwin's finches, sticklebacks and cichlid fish, for example — but relatively little is known about what happens next. Specifically, what is the rate-limiting step for the establishment of new species? This seven-year study of the 358 songbird species found on the Himalayan slopes suggests that it is the rates at which new niches are created and occupied that limits diversification, not the rate at which new species form through reproductive isolation. Speci…
Divergent Macroparasite Infections in Parapatric Swiss Lake-Stream Pairs of Threespine Stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus)
2015
Spatial heterogeneity in diversity and intensity of parasitism is a typical feature of most hostparasite interactions, but understanding of the evolutionary implications of such variation is limited. One possible outcome of infection heterogeneities is parasite-mediated divergent selection between host populations, ecotypes or species which may facilitate the process of ecological speciation. However, very few studies have described infections in populationpairs along the speciation continuum from low to moderate or high degree of genetic differentiation that would address the possibility of parasite-mediated divergent selection in the early stages of the speciation process. Here we provide…
Hybridization in Capparis spinosa L.: Molecular and morphological evidence from a Mediterranean island complex
2014
Inter-Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) molecular markers and morphological analysis were used in order to characterize wild populations and cultivated forms of orphan crop species Capparis spinosa L. in a Mediterranean island complex. Nineteen wild populations belonging to two different subspecies, C. spinosa subsp. spinosa and subsp. rupestris, were sampled in different environments in Sicily and the surrounding islets Lampedusa, Pantelleria and Salina. Different biotypes cultivated in Pantelleria and Salina were analyzed. Six ISSR primers were selected for genetic characterization, and all clear and reproducible bands were scored and analyzed. Among the 47 ISSR bands obtained, 97.5% were pol…
Sexual and postmating reproductive isolation between allopatric Drosophila montana populations suggest speciation potential
2011
This work was funded by a European Commission Research Training Grant RTN2-2001-00049, the Centre of Excellence for Evolutionary Research at the University of Jyväskylä and a Marie Curie Initial Training Network, ‘Understanding the evolutionary origin of biological diversity’ (ITN-2008-213780 SPECIATION) Background: Widely distributed species with populations adapted to different environmental conditions can provide valuable opportunities for tracing the onset of reproductive incompatibilities and their role in the speciation process. Drosophila montana, a D. virilis group species found in high latitude boreal forests in Nearctic and Palearctic regions around the globe, could be an excellen…