Ort: Hörsaal des Museum Alexander Koenig
Zeit: 14.01.2010, 18.15 Uhr
Zeit: 14.01.2010, 18.15 Uhr
Ecological speciation: the strength of reproductive barriers in stickleback and Darwin´s finches
Recent findings in evolutionary ecology have caused a shift in emphasis from demonstrating evolutionary processes in nature towards investigating why populations do or do not evolve. This is because research from the last decade has revealed that evolutionary processes can act at ecological timescales, that evolutionary responses are dynamic, and that evolutionary processes are reversible. In the context of ecological speciation, a growing number of studies have identified considerable variation in the degree of reproductive isolation. This research now targets factors that either promote or constrain "progress" toward ecological speciation. Even in two classical models for speciation research, the three-spined stickleback and the Darwin's finches, it is now clear that ecological speciation is not ubiquitous, and that reproductive barriers can be unexpectedly weak.
