The role of ecology in speciation by sexual selection: a systematic empirical review.
Theoretical and empirical research indicates that sexual selection interacts with the ecological context in which mate choice occurs, suggesting that sexual and natural selection act together during the evolution of premating reproductive isolation. However, the relative importance of natural and sexual selection to speciation remains poorly understood. Here, we applied a recent conceptual framework for examining interactions between mate choice divergence and ecological context to a review of the empirical literature on speciation by sexual selection. This framework defines two types of interactions between mate choice and ecology: internal interactions, wherein natural and sexual selection jointly influence divergence in sexual signal traits and preferences, and external interactions, wherein sexual selection alone acts on traits and preferences but ecological context shapes the transmission efficacy of sexual signals. The objectives of this synthesis were 3-fold: to summarize the traits, ecological factors, taxa, and geographic contexts involved in studies of mate choice divergence; to analyze patterns of association between these variables; and to identify the most common types of interactions between mate choice and ecological factors. Our analysis revealed that certain traits are consistently associated with certain ecological factors. Moreover, among studies that examined a divergent sexually selected trait and an ecological factor, internal interactions were more common than external interactions. Trait-preference associations may thus frequently be subject to both sexual and natural selection in cases of divergent mate choice. Our results highlight the importance of interactions between sexual selection and ecology in mate choice divergence and suggest areas for future research.
['Scordato|Elizabeth S C|ES|', 'Symes|Laurel B|LB|', 'Mendelson|Tamra C|TC|', 'Safran|Rebecca J|RJ|']
D000663:Amphibians D000818:Animals D001717:Birds D004463:Ecology D017753:Ecosystem D005260:Female D049810:Genetic Speciation D008297:Male D008322:Mammals D052586:Mating Preference, Animal D008974:Mollusca D020412:Multifactorial Inheritance D012104:Reptiles D012641:Selection, Genetic
ecology speciation sexual selection natural selection reproductive isolation trait divergence