Theoretical Framework of the Adaptive Evolution of Premating Isolation

我们对新物种如何形成的认识仍有很大的空白。物种形成的关键阶段之一可能经常是交配偏好的发展，以防止不同种群成员之间的杂交。Servedio和Turelli正在使用一系列的数学模型来系统地研究一些被提出的因素在推动这种偏好进化中可能发挥的作用。他们将评估降低杂交个体产生的健康和可育后代数量的几种机制的重要性。新兴物种也可能占据不同的栖息地，在这些栖息地中，不同的特征可能有助于它们的生存。这一现象在推动物种形成中的作用也将被评估。通过集中研究处于物种形成过程中的种群之间接触的后果，该项目将有助于阐明产生和维持生物多样性的机制。对这些过程的探索也对这种多样性的保护有意义。由于人类的干扰侵蚀了屏障并改变了物种范围，因此，在密切相关的物种之间出现新的接触时，了解促进物种分化与灭绝的条件变得越来越重要。

There are still large gaps in our knowledge of how new species form. One of the critical stages of speciation may often be the development of mating preferences that prevent interbreeding between members of diverging populations. Servedio and Turelli are using a series of mathematical models to systematically examine the roles that a number of proposed factors may play in driving this preference evolution. They will assess the importance of several mechanisms that lower the number of healthy and fertile offspring produced by pairs of hybridizing individuals. Emerging species may also occupy divergent habitats in which different traits may contribute to survival. The role of this phenomenon in driving speciation will also be assessed.By concentrating on the consequences of contact between populations that are in the process of speciating, this project will help to elucidate what mechanisms produce and maintain biological diversity. The exploration of these processes also has implications for the conservation of this diversity. As human disturbance erodes barriers and alters species ranges, it is becoming increasingly essential to understand the conditions that promote species divergence versus extinction in the face of new contacts between closely related species.