page_title: Reinforcement (speciation)
section_title: Evidence
hierarchical_section_title: Reinforcement (speciation) / Evidence
caption_attribution_description: English: Two allopatric populations come into secondary contact. In sympatry, divergence is exhibited by changes in mating traits. These patterns of reproductive character displacement detected in species populations that exist in zones of overlap indicate that the process of speciation by reinforcement has occurred.
context_page_description: Reinforcement is a process of speciation where natural selection increases the reproductive isolation between two populations of species. This occurs as a result of selection acting against the production of hybrid individuals of low fitness. The idea was originally developed by Alfred Russel Wallace and is sometimes referred to as the Wallace effect. The modern concept of reinforcement originates from Theodosius Dobzhansky. He envisioned a species separated allopatrically, where during secondary contact the two populations mate, producing hybrids with lower fitness. Natural selection results from the hybrid's inability to produce viable offspring; thus members of one species who do not mate with members of the other have greater reproductive success. This favors the evolution of greater prezygotic isolation. Reinforcement is one of the few cases in which selection can favor an increase in prezygotic isolation, influencing the process of speciation directly. This aspect has been particularly appealing among evolutionary biologists.
context_section_description: The evidence for reinforcement comes from observations in nature, comparative studies, and laboratory experiments.
caption: Two allopatric populations come into secondary contact. In sympatry, divergence is exhibited by changes in mating traits. These patterns of reproductive character displacement detected in species populations that exist in zones of overlap indicate that the process of speciation by reinforcement has occurred.
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