a
symposium at ESEB 2001, the 8th Congress of the
European Society for Evolutionary Biology in
Aarhus,
Denmark
Recent empirical evidence and theoretical insights revolutionise our understanding of the process of speciation. New data
highlight the widespread role of adaptation in speciation, indicate that sexual selection may be responsible for extensive
radiations, and lend support to the long-rejected idea of sympatric speciation. Significant theoretical advances include the
plausibility of reinforcement based on multilocus simulation models. New models of sexual selection demonstrate fast
speciation both in sympatry and in allopatry. Novel mechanisms are proposed to facilitate the evolution of host races.
Ecological conditions of non-allopatric speciation now can be tested by a new theoretical adaptive dynamic framework that is
capable to model evolutionary branching, the clonal equivalent of speciation. A new theory of allopatric speciation on 'holey'
adaptive landscapes formalises, for the first time, the idea of speciation by slowly accumulating neutral allele substitutions.
This symposium aims to present a snapshot of our fast developing insights into the origin of species.
Invited speakers:
(1) Ulf Dieckmann & Michael Doebeli (Adaptive Dynamics Network, IIASA,
Laxenburg, Austria; Dept. Zoology, University of British Columbia, Canada):
(2) Tadeusz Kawecki (University of Basel, Switzerland):
(3) George Turner (University of Southampton, UK):
Contact the symposium organiser: Eva Kisdi (eva.kisdi@utu.fi), Dept. of
Mathematics, University of Turku, FIN-20014 Turku, Finland. Co-organisers are
Sergey Gavrilets (Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology & Dept. of Mathematics,
University of Tennessee, USA) and Stefan Geritz (Dept. of Mathematics, University of
Turku, Finland)
See the Congress homepage
See abstracts