Why Do Some Lineages Radiate While Others Do Not? Perspectives for Future Research on Adaptive Radiations
Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology, vol. 17, pp. a041448
Abstract
Understanding the processes that drive phenotypic diversification and underpin speciation is key to elucidating how biodiversity has evolved. Although these processes have been studied across a wide array of clades, adaptive radiations (ARs), which are systems with multiple closely related species and broad phenotypic diversity, have been particularly fruitful for teasing apart the factors that drive and constrain diversification. As such, ARs have become popular candidate study systems for determining the extent to which ecological features, including aspects of organisms and the environment, and inter- and intraspecific interactions, led to evolutionary diversification. Despite substantial past empirical and theoretical work, understanding mechanistically how ARs evolve remains a major challenge. Here, we highlight a number of understudied components of the environment and of lineages themselves, which may help further our understanding of speciation and AR. We also outline some substantial remaining challenges to achieving a detailed understanding of adaptation, speciation, and the role of ecology in these processes. These major challenges include identifying factors that have a causative impact in promoting or constraining ARs, gaining a more holistic understanding of features of organisms and their environment that interact resulting in adaptation and speciation, and understanding whether the role of these organismal and environmental features varies throughout the radiation process. We conclude by providing perspectives on how future investigations into the AR process can overcome these challenges, allowing us to glean mechanistic insights into adaptation and speciation.
Authors 25
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University of California, Santa Cruz
Affiliation as printed
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, California 95060, USA rishidek@gmail.com
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Affiliation as printed
University of Exeter, Exeter, Devon EX4 4QE, United Kingdom
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Affiliation as printed
Zoological Institute, Department of Environmental Science, University of Basel, CH-4051 Basel, Switzerland
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Affiliation as printed
Department of Biology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40508, USA
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Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology
Affiliation as printed
Department of Fish Ecology and Evolution, EAWAG, Swiss Federal Institute for Aquatic Science and Technology, CH-6047 Kastanienbaum, Switzerland
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Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology · Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research
Affiliation as printed
Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh 201002, India
CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, Telangana 500007, India
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Affiliation as printed
Zoological Institute, Department of Environmental Science, University of Basel, CH-4051 Basel, Switzerland
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Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique · Université de Lille · Unité Évolution, Écologie et Paléontologie
Affiliation as printed
CNRS, Univ. Lille, UMR 8198 - Evo-Eco-Paleo, F-59000 Lille, France
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Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt/M · California Academy of Sciences
Affiliation as printed
Department of Entomology, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, California 94118, USA
Department of Terrestrial Zoology, Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
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University of Catania · National Research Council · Institute for Marine Biological Resources and Biotechnology
Affiliation as printed
Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences, University of Catania, 95124 Catania, Italy
Institute for Marine Biological Resources and Biotechnology (IRBIM), National Research Council (CNR), 98122 Messina, Italy
National Biodiversity Future Center, 61 90133 Palermo, Italy
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Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Affiliation as printed
Department of Biology and Center for Computational and Integrative Biology, Rutgers University-Camden, Camden, New Jersey 08103, USA
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University of California, Berkeley
Affiliation as printed
Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
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California State University, San Bernardino
Affiliation as printed
Department of Biology, California State University, San Bernardino, California 92407, USA
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Affiliation as printed
Institute of Biology, University of Graz, 8010 Graz, Austria
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Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology
Affiliation as printed
Department of Fish Ecology and Evolution, EAWAG, Swiss Federal Institute for Aquatic Science and Technology, CH-6047 Kastanienbaum, Switzerland
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Naturalis Biodiversity Center · German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research
Affiliation as printed
German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
Naturalis Biodiversity Center, 2333CR Leiden, The Netherlands
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University of Bern · Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology
Affiliation as printed
Aquatic Ecology Division, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
Department of Fish Ecology and Evolution, EAWAG, Swiss Federal Institute for Aquatic Science and Technology, CH-6047 Kastanienbaum, Switzerland
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University of Bern · Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology
Affiliation as printed
Aquatic Ecology Division, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
Department of Fish Ecology and Evolution, EAWAG, Swiss Federal Institute for Aquatic Science and Technology, CH-6047 Kastanienbaum, Switzerland
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Affiliation as printed
Department of Biology, Lund University, SE-223 62 Lund, Sweden
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Affiliation as printed
Centro de Investigación de la Biodiversidad y Cambio Climático (BioCamb) e Ingeniería en Biodiversidad y Recursos Genéticos, Facultad de Ciencias de Medio Ambiente, Universidad Indoamérica, Machala y Sabanilla, Quito EC170103, Ecuador
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Affiliation as printed
Research Group Zoology: Biodiversity and Toxicology, Centre for Environmental Sciences, Hasselt University, 3590 Diepenbeek, Belgium
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Affiliation as printed
Department of Integrative Biology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma 74078, USA
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University of British Columbia · Hokkaido University
Affiliation as printed
Department of Advanced Transdisciplinary Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido 060-0810, Japan
Department of Zoology and Biodiversity Research Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada
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Affiliation as printed
Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27710, USA
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Affiliation as printed
Department of Biosciences, Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis (CEES), University of Oslo, NO-0316 Oslo, Norway
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