Wiens John J
Department of Ecology and Evolution, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794-5245, USA.
Evolution. 2004 Jan;58(1):193-7. doi: 10.1111/j.0014-3820.2004.tb01586.x.
Evolutionary biologists have often suggested that ecology is important in speciation, in that natural selection may drive adaptive divergence between lineages that inhabit different environments. I suggest that it is the tendency of lineages to maintain their ancestral ecological niche (phylogenetic niche conservatism) and their failure to adapt to new environments which frequently isolates incipient species and begins the process of speciation. Niche conservatism may be an important and widespread component of allopatric speciation but is largely unstudied. The perspective outlined here suggests roles for key microevolutionary processes (i.e., natural selection, adaptation) that are strikingly different from those proposed in previous literature on ecology and speciation. Yet, this perspective is complementary to the traditional view because it focuses on a different temporal stage of the speciation process.
进化生物学家常常认为，生态在物种形成中很重要，因为自然选择可能会推动栖息于不同环境的谱系之间的适应性分化。我认为，谱系倾向于维持其祖先的生态位（系统发育生态位保守性），以及它们未能适应新环境，这常常会隔离初始物种并开启物种形成的过程。生态位保守性可能是异域物种形成的一个重要且普遍存在的组成部分，但在很大程度上尚未得到研究。这里概述的观点表明，关键的微观进化过程（即自然选择、适应）所起的作用与先前关于生态与物种形成的文献中提出的作用截然不同。然而，这一观点与传统观点是互补的，因为它关注的是物种形成过程中一个不同的时间阶段。
