A species may overlap with a mosaic of species across its geographic range. Many types of species interaction cause selection on mating traits, but their role in generating within-species divergence has been neglected. The pattern of reproductive character displacement (RCD) has been classically attributed to reinforcement, a process driven by selection against hybridisation. Recent reinforceme...

A metacommunity can be defined as a set of communities that are linked by migration, and extinction and recolonization. In metacommunities, evolution can occur not only by processes that occur within communities such as drift and individual selection, but also by among-community processes, such as divergent selection owing to random differences among communities in species composition, and grou...

The neutral theory of molecular evolution predicts that the amount of neutral polymorphisms within a species will increase proportionally with the census population size (Nc). However, this prediction has not been borne out in practice: while the range of Nc spans many orders of magnitude, levels of genetic diversity within species fall in a comparatively narrow range. Although theoretical argu...

Bindin, a protein involved in sea urchin sperm-egg recognition and adhesion, is under positive selection in genera with sympatric species but evolves neutrally in genera in which all species are allopatric. This pattern has led to suggestions that reinforcement may be the source of the observed selection. Reproductive character displacement, or increased divergence of reproductive characters in...

1. Optimal foraging theory assumes that a predator preys selectively to maximize fitness gain. The associated model assesses predator’s fitness gain by estimating prey profitability in terms of appropriate foraging costs and benefits. While model developing, unsuccessful foraging was included in the model because it is inevitable and costly for a predator. However, it has rarely been taken into...

Ecological transition zones, where organismal phenotypes result from a delicate balance between selection and migration, highlight the interplay of local adaptation and gene flow. Here, I study the response of an entire species assemblage to natural selection across a common ecotone. Three lizard species, distributed along a dramatic environmental gradient in substrate color, display convergent...

All steps of a mining project generally disturb the environment'soriginal condition during construction. Therefore, it is crucial toimplement an appropriate mine reclamation plan throughout all mineplanning stages from sustainable and environmental point of view.Planting the suitable plant species in each step of any reclamationplan and each area is one of the necessities in this respect.Select...

The fitness of any organisms includes the survival and reproductive rate of adults and the survival of their offspring. Environmental selection pressures might not affect these two aspects of an organism equally. Assuming that an organism first allocates its limited resources to maintain its survival under environmental selection pressure, our model, based on the evolutionarily stable strategy ...

Genes of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) encode molecules that control immune recognition and are highly polymorphic in most vertebrates. The remarkable polymorphisms at MHC loci may be maintained by selection from parasites, sexual selection, or both. If asexual species show equal (or higher) levels of polymorphisms at MHC loci as sexual ones, this would mean that sexual selection i...