Morphological variation associated with trophic niche expansion within a lake population of a benthic fish.

ABSTRACT: Ecological theory suggests that generalist species should have traits with multiple adaptive peaks. Consequently, in heterogeneous environments such adaptive landscapes may lead to phenotypic divergence that becomes fixed in populations via reproductive isolation, thus driving speciation. However, contrary to this expectation, the process of ecological diversification in wild populations is not always associated with obvious trait divergence and reproductive isolation due to some ecological and geographic constrains. To examine the ecological conditions that promote (or inhibit) divergence is quite important to improve our understanding of the underlying mechanisms. Here we examine how the patterns of trait variation (divergence/non-divergence) are determined in relation to ecological nich

SUBMITTER: Endo C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7179883 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature