Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S10 2TN, United Kingdom.
Current Address: Sean Stankowski, IST Austria, Klosterneuburg, 3400, Austria.
Evolution. 2021 Jun;75(6):1256-1273. doi: 10.1111/evo.14215. Epub 2021 May 5.
A primary roadblock to our understanding of speciation is that it usually occurs over a timeframe that is too long to study from start to finish. The idea of a speciation continuum provides something of a solution to this problem; rather than observing the entire process, we can simply reconstruct it from the multitude of speciation events that surround us. But what do we really mean when we talk about the speciation continuum, and can it really help us understand speciation? We explored these questions using a literature review and online survey of speciation researchers. Although most researchers were familiar with the concept and thought it was useful, our survey revealed extensive disagreement about what the speciation continuum actually tells us. This is due partly to the lack of a clear definition. Here, we provide an explicit definition that is compatible with the Biological Species Concept. That is, the speciation continuum is a continuum of reproductive isolation. After outlining the logic of the definition in light of alternatives, we explain why attempts to reconstruct the speciation process from present-day populations will ultimately fail. We then outline how we think the speciation continuum concept can continue to act as a foundation for understanding the continuum of reproductive isolation that surrounds us.
我们对物种形成的理解的一个主要障碍是，它通常发生在一个时间跨度太长，无法从头到尾进行研究。物种形成连续统的概念为解决这个问题提供了一些解决方案；我们不必观察整个过程，而只需从我们周围众多的物种形成事件中重建它。但是，当我们谈论物种形成连续统时，我们真正的意思是什么，它真的能帮助我们理解物种形成吗？我们使用文献综述和对物种形成研究人员的在线调查来探讨这些问题。尽管大多数研究人员都熟悉这个概念，并认为它很有用，但我们的调查显示，对于物种形成连续统实际上告诉了我们什么，存在广泛的分歧。这部分是由于缺乏明确的定义。在这里，我们提供了一个与生物物种概念兼容的明确定义。也就是说，物种形成连续统是生殖隔离的连续统。在根据替代方案概述了该定义的逻辑之后，我们解释了为什么试图从当前种群中重建物种形成过程最终会失败。然后，我们概述了我们认为物种形成连续统概念如何继续作为理解我们周围生殖隔离连续统的基础。
