Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Speciation along environmental gradients

Abstract

Traditional discussions of speciation are based on geographical patterns of species ranges1,2. In allopatric speciation, long-term geographical isolation generates reproductively isolated and spatially segregated descendant species1,3. In the absence of geographical barriers, diversification is hindered by gene flow1,3,4. Yet a growing body of phylogenetic and experimental data suggests that closely related species often occur in sympatry or have adjacent ranges in regions over which environmental changes are gradual and do not prevent gene flow5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14. Theory has identified a variety of evolutionary processes that can result in speciation under sympatric conditions15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25, with some recent advances concentrating on the phenomenon of evolutionary branching18,23,24,25. Here we establish a link between geographical patterns and ecological processes of speciation by studying evolutionary branching in spatially structured populations. We show that along an environmental gradient, evolutionary branching can occur much more easily than in non-spatial models. This facilitation is most pronounced for gradients of intermediate slope. Moreover, spatial evolutionary branching readily generates patterns of spatial segregation and abutment between the emerging species. Our results highlight the importance of local processes of adaptive divergence for geographical patterns of speciation, and caution against pitfalls of inferring past speciation processes from present biogeographical patterns.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Environmental gradient in carrying capacities.
Figure 2: Evolutionary dynamics of adaptive divergence.
Figure 3: Requirements for spatial evolutionary branching in asexual populations.
Figure 4: Requirements for spatial evolutionary branching in sexual populations.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Mayr, E. Animal Species and Evolution (Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1963)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  2. Endler, J. A. Geographic Variation, Speciation, and Clines (Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1977)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Coyne, J. A. Genetics and speciation. Nature 355, 511–515 (1992)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Felsenstein, J. Scepticism towards Santa Rosalia, or why are there so few kinds of animals. Evolution 35, 124–138 (1981)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Schliewen, U. K., Tautz, D. & Pääbo, S. Sympatric speciation suggested by monophyly of crater lake cichlids. Nature 368, 629–632 (1994)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Schluter, D. Experimental evidence that competition promotes divergence in adaptive radiation. Science 266, 798–801 (1994)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Johannesson, K., Rolán-Alvarez, E. & Ekendahl, A. Incipient reproductive isolation between two sympatric morphs of the intertidal snail Littorina saxatilis. Evolution 49, 1180–1190 (1995)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Knox, E. B. & Palmer, J. D. Chloroplast DNA variation and the recent radiation of giant senecios (Asteraceae) on the tall mountains of Eastern Africa. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 92, 10349–10353 (1995)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Feder, J. L. Endless Forms (eds Howard, D. J. & Berlocher, S. H.) 130–144 (Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, UK, 1998)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Rainey, P. B. & Travisano, M. Adaptive radiation in a heterogeneous environment. Nature 394, 69–72 (1998)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Gislason, D., Ferguson, M., Skulason, S. & Snorrason, S. S. Rapid and coupled phenotypic and genetic divergence in Icelandic Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus). Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 56, 2229–2234 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Schliewen, U. K., Rassmann, K., Markmann, M., Markert, J. & Tautz, D. Genetic and ecological divergence of a monophyletic cichlid species pair under fully sympatric conditions in Lake Ejagham, Cameroon. Mol. Ecol. 10, 1471–1488 (2001)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Wilding, C. S., Butlin, R. K. & Grahame, J. Differential gene exchange between parapatric morphs of Littorina saxatilis detected using AFLP markers. J. Evol. Biol. 14, 611–618 (2001)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Via, S. Sympatric speciation in animals: the ugly duckling grows up. Trends Ecol. Evol. 16, 381–390 (2001)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Lande, R. Rapid origin of sexual isolation and character divergence in a cline. Evolution 36, 213–223 (1982)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Kawecki, T. J. Sympatric speciation via habitat specialization driven by deleterious mutations. Evolution 51, 1751–1763 (1997)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Kondrashov, A. S. & Kondrashov, F. A. Interactions among quantitative traits in the course of sympatric speciation. Nature 400, 351–354 (1999)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Dieckmann, U. & Doebeli, M. On the origin of species by sympatric speciation. Nature 400, 354–357 (1999)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Van Doorn, G. S., Luttikhuizen, P. C. & Weissing, F. J. Sexual selection at the protein level drives the extraordinary divergence of sex-related genes during sympatric speciation. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 268, 2155–2161 (2001)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Gavrilets, S. & Waxman, D. Sympatric speciation by sexual conflict. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 99, 10533–10538 (2002)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Mizera, F. & Meszéna, G. Spatial niche packing, character displacement and adpative speciation in an environmental gradient. Evol. Ecol. Res. (in the press)

  22. Turelli, M., Barton, N. H. & Coyne, J. A. Theory and speciation. Trends Ecol. Evol. 16, 330–343 (2001)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Geritz, S. A. H., Kisdi, E., Meszéna, G. & Metz, J. A. J. Evolutionarily singular strategies and the adaptive growth and branching of the evolutionary tree. Evol. Ecol. 12, 35–57 (1998)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Doebeli, M. & Dieckmann, U. Evolutionary branching and sympatric speciation caused by different types of ecological interactions. Am. Nat. 156, S77–S101 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Kisdi, E. Evolutionary branching under asymmetric competition. J. Theor. Biol. 197, 149–162 (1999)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Case, T. J. & Taper, M. L. Interspecific competition, environmental gradients, gene flow, and the coevolution of species' borders. Am. Nat. 155, 583–605 (2000)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Slatkin, M. Spatial patterns in the distribution of polygenic characters. J. Theor. Biol. 70, 213–228 (1978)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Barton, N. H. Clines in polygenic traits. Genet. Res. 74, 223–236 (1999)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Barraclough, T. G. & Vogler, A. P. Detecting the geographical pattern of speciation from species-level phylogenies. Am. Nat. 155, 419–434 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Dieckmann, U., Law, R. & Metz, J. A. J. The Geometry of Ecological Interactions: Simplifying Spatial Complexity (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, UK, 2000)

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank H. Metz, D. Tautz, G. Meszéna, D. Schluter, E. Knox, O. Leimar, M. Kirkpatrick and T. Barraclough for discussions and comments. The order of authors is reverse alphabetical.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael Doebeli.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Doebeli, M., Dieckmann, U. Speciation along environmental gradients. Nature 421, 259–264 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature01274

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature01274

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing