IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v417y2002i6890d10.1038_nature00810.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Geographic structure and dynamics of coevolutionary selection

Author

Listed:
  • John N. Thompson

    (University of California)

  • Bradley M. Cunningham

    (Washington State University)

Abstract

Coevolution of species is one of the major processes organizing the Earth's biodiversity. Recent coevolutionary theory has indicated that the geographic structure of species has the potential to impose powerful and continuing effects on coevolutionary dynamics, if that structure creates selection mosaics and coevolutionary hotspots across landscapes1,2,3,4,5,6,7. Here we confirm that current coevolutionary selection in interspecific interactions can be highly divergent across both narrow and broad geographic scales, thereby fuelling continuing coevolution of taxa. Study of a widespread plant–insect interaction across a broad range of habitats for several years showed that an insect functioning both as a pollinator and a floral parasite can be strongly mutualistic in some habitats but commensal or antagonistic in neighbouring habitats. The results for one of the habitats span seven years, demonstrating that the local structure of coevolutionary selection can remain stable across multiple generations. Conservation of the evolutionary processes maintaining long-term biological diversity may require preservation of the conditions that allow a long-term shifting geographic mosaic of coevolutionary hotspots and coldspots.

Suggested Citation

  • John N. Thompson & Bradley M. Cunningham, 2002. "Geographic structure and dynamics of coevolutionary selection," Nature, Nature, vol. 417(6890), pages 735-738, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:417:y:2002:i:6890:d:10.1038_nature00810
    DOI: 10.1038/nature00810
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature00810
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature00810?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Geerat Vermeij, 2009. "Comparative economics: evolution and the modern economy," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 11(2), pages 105-134, August.
    2. Demetra Andreou & Christophe Eizaguirre & Thomas Boehm & Manfred Milinski, 2017. "Mate choice in sticklebacks reveals that immunogenes can drive ecological speciation," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 28(4), pages 953-961.
    3. Koo, Kyung-Ah & Patten, Bernard C. & Teskey, Robert O., 2011. "Assessing environmental factors in red spruce (Picea rubens Sarg.) growth in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, USA: From conceptual model, envirogram, to simulation model," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 222(3), pages 824-834.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:417:y:2002:i:6890:d:10.1038_nature00810. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.