The ecological genetics of speciation.

Ecological interactions and the natural selection they cause play a prominent causal role in biological diversification and speciation. As a discipline, ecological genetics integrates the two components of adaptive evolution (natural selection and genetic variability) to study the mechanisms of evolution. Ecological genetics is a fruitful approach to the study of how reproductive isolation can evolve under natural selection. The essence of this way of thinking and the ways in which it can be used to address persistent open questions in speciation are discussed.