Species naturally originate through natural selection. Ecological specialization is the mechanism by which this occurs. It is defined as the evolution of reproductive isolation between populations as a result of ecologically-based divergent natural selection. The alternative mechanism is mutation-order speciation in which the population can fix different mutations as they adapt to similar selection pressures. Recently many studies and research has shown that we know very little about the genetics of the process.
The ecological species concept tells us about many things out of which, is ecological speciation. Ecological speciation is the process of economic speciation; one organism creates a new niche for other organisms to potentially adapt, leading to their speciation. Ecological speciation is the process by which new species are formed as a consequence of divergent natural selection between contrasting ecological environments. Further work is required on how the number and chromosomal distribution of divergent genes affects ecological speciation.
Even the border consequences speciation for communities/ecosystems is just starting to be explored. The ecological species concept is a concept of species in which a species is usually a type of organism which is adapted to a particular set of resources, called a niche in the environment.
Darwin’s take on natural selection
One of Darwin’s greatest ideas was that new species originate from natural selection in the environment. It took the evolutionary scientists too long but now they think that Darwin was probably correct about this. Darwin usually looked at the species as if they were a group of individuals closely resembling each other. Later Dobzhansky and Mayr, the one who proposed the ecological species concept meaning defined species and speciation by the criterion of reproductive isolation instead. Recently scientists have found evidence that indicates that reproductive isolation also evolves frequently by natural selection.
Speciation by natural selection occurs by 2 general mechanisms, the first among these is ecological speciation. In this process, natural selection acts in a very contrasting direction between environments. In contrast, under mutation-order speciation, populations diverge as they accumulate a different series of mutations under similar selection pressures. Divergence does usually occur by chance under the mutation-order process.
Evidence for ecological speciation in a three-spined stickleback system and address the possible role of standing genetic variation in their adaptation to freshwater environments. We present a hypothesis for the repetitive origin of freshwater stickleback species involving a natural selection of standing genetic variation.
Genetics of premating isolation
Premating isolation is the least probability of individuals from a different population as a result of ecological, behavioral, or any other phenotypic differences. Interbreeding is reduced when spatial proximity of individuals is required for mating, and when the survival, growth, or reproduction. As it arises from a direct selection of the phenotypes of individuals, the genetics of immigrant viability is identical to the genetics of local adaptation.
Any locus under divergent natural selection between parental environments contributes to immigrant viability and therefore may contribute to speciation. The contribution of this to reproductive isolation can increase directly with the strength of selection on genes.
For example, Hawthorne and via discovered several quantitative trait loci (QTL) responsible for the host-specific performance of specialized aphid populations. Each type survives poorly on the other’s host plant. We should note that the ecological species concept is to date one of the fine research works done.
Advantages and disadvantages of the ecological species concept
The ecological species concept advantages are as follows:
- It is a very simple concept.
- It is the most widely used theory.
The disadvantages of ecological species theory are as follows:
- Too many decisions on how much difference between individuals is too much variation. Nearly the entire are made up of non-identical individuals.
Conclusion
To sum it all up, species naturally originate through natural selection. Ecological specialization is the mechanism by which this occurs. It is defined as the evolution of reproductive isolation between populations as a result of ecologically-based divergent natural selection.
The ecological species concept meaning tells us about many things out of which, is ecological speciation. Ecological speciation is the process of economic speciation; one organism creates a new niche for other organisms to potentially adapt, leading to their speciation. One of Darwin’s greatest ideas was that new species originate from natural selection in nature. It took the evolutionary scientists too long but now they think that Darwin was probably correct about this.
Darwin usually looked at the species as if they were a group of individuals closely resembling each other, in which case adaptive divergence in phenotype eventually leads to speciation. Later Dobzhansky and Mayr, the ones who proposed the ecological species concept, defined species and speciation by the criterion of reproductive isolation instead. Mayr’s biological species concept is truly a piece of art in the field of research.