In the model, individual plants spread along a branched network via directional dispersal and undergo neutral ecological drift.
16, 17 Finally, ecological speciation predicts that neutral gene flow between populations will decrease as adaptive divergence increases.
> -wrap-foot> E locus, ecological locus; N locus, neutral locus; S loci, susceptibility loci; WT, wild type.
Third, in order to gain complete experimental control in a neutral setting, ecological validity of a real-life social interaction had to be sacrificed.
This approach requires improved integration of empirical and theoretical ecology with direct experimental evidence of putative structuring mechanisms to evaluate the niche and/or neutral processes structuring ecological communities.
To date, my research has shown that the effects of anthropogenic biodiversity loss on disease transmission can be positive, negative, or neutral, depending upon ecological context: the disease agent, the ecosystem, and the type and magnitude of the impact.
Although the neutral theory of ecological communities (Hubbell 2001) has successfully explained a number of community patterns, notably the lognormal-like relative abundance distribution (Volkov et al. 2003, 2007), it has failed to explain beta turnover in Panama and Amazonian forests (Condit et al. 2002).
This process can result in neutral speciation without ecological drivers, and we see little or no evidence that positive selection is propelling variation in MRP.
Finally, neutral assembly processes (ecological drift and dispersal limitation) need to be considered in order to assess the relative contribution of stochastic and deterministic drivers to ecological community structure [ 24, 128].
