Speciation and Patterns of Diversity

About this book

Bringing together the viewpoints of leading ecologists concerned with the processes that generate patterns of diversity, and evolutionary biologists who focus on mechanisms of speciation, this book opens up discussion in order to broaden understanding of how speciation affects patterns of biological diversity, especially the uneven distribution of diversity across time, space and taxa studied by macroecologists.

The contributors discuss questions such as: Are species equivalent units, providing meaningful measures of diversity? To what extent do mechanisms of speciation affect the functional nature and distribution of species diversity? How can speciation rates be measured using molecular phylogenies or data from the fossil record? What are the factors that explain variation in rates? Written for graduate students and academic researchers, the book promotes a more complete understanding of the interaction between mechanisms and rates of speciation and these patterns in biological diversity.

Contents

1. Introduction: Speciation and patterns of diversity / Roger K. Butlin, Jon R. Bridle and Dolph Schluter
2. On the arbitrary identification of real species / Jody Hey
3. The evolutionary nature of diversification in sexuals and asexuals / Timothy G. Barraclough, Diego Fontaneto, Elisabeth A. Herniou and Claudia Ricci
4. The poverty of the protists / Graham Bell
5. Theory, community assembly, diversity and evolution in the microbial world / Thomas P. Curtis, Nigel C. Wallbridge and William T. Sloan
6. Patterns of biodiversity and limits to adaptation in time and space / Jon R. Bridle, Jitka Polechova and Timothy H. Vines
7. Dynamic patterns of adaptive radiation: evolution of mating preferences / Sergey Gavrilets and Aaron Vose
8. Niche dimensionality and ecological speciation / Patrik Nosil and Luke Harmon
9. Progressive levels of trait divergence along a 'speciation transect' in the Lake Victoria cichlid fish Pundamilia / Ole Seehausen
10. Rapid speciation, hybridization and adaptive radiation in the Heliconius melpomene group / James Mallet
11. Investigating ecological speciation / Daniel J. Funk
12. Biotic interactions and speciation in the tropics / Douglas W. Schemske
13. Ecological influences on the temporal pattern of speciation / Albert B. Phillimore and Trevor D. Price
14. Speciation, extinction, and diversity / Robert E. Ricklefs
15. Temporal patterns in diversification rates / Andy Purvis, C. David L. Orme, Nicola H. Toomey and Paul N. Pearson
16. Speciation and extinction in the fossil record of North American mammals / John Alroy

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Biography

Roger Butlin is Professor of Evolutionary Biology, Animal and Plant Sciences, at the University of Sheffield. He has held a prestigious Royal Society Research Fellowship at the University of Cardiff and his work has been recognized by honorary fellowships at the Natural History Museum, Zoological Society of London and Royal Belgian Academy of Natural Sciences.

Jon Bridle is a Lecturer in Biology, School of Biological Sciences, at the University of Bristol. Since completing his PhD in Evolutionary Genetics in 1998, he has conducted postdoctoral research in quantitative genetics and evolutionary biology at UCL, University of Cardiff, and Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. He was awarded a fellowship at the Zoological Society of London in 2002.

Dolph Schluter is Professor and Canada Research Chair, Biodiversity Research Centre and Zoology Department, at the University of British Columbia. He is a former President of the Society for the Study of Evolution and recipient of the Sewall Wright Award from the American Society of Naturalists. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of London and of Canada.