#speciation #taxonomy #habitat

"How Ecotypes Harbor the Genetic Memory of a Species’ Past

Evolutionary biologists are uncovering genomic mechanisms that allow populations to adapt quickly to different, hyperlocal habitats without splitting into new species.

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Around 50 years earlier, the botanist Göte Turesson had had a similar revelation in a similar setting. As he walked Sweden’s shores, he noticed that saltbush plants from different stretches of coastline had distinct traits — earlier or later flowering times, or shorter or longer stalks — and between habitats, those traits fell somewhere in the middle. He bred the plants in his home garden and found that these distinct traits had a genetic basis even though they arose from the same species. In 1922, he published his results (opens a new tab) and coined the term 'ecotype' to describe a subpopulation of a species adapted to a hyperlocal habitat.

At that time, the definition of a species was even less clear than it is today. Genes were still theoretical, and the structure of DNA wouldn’t be discovered for another 30 years. Turesson 'struggled to be accepted,' said Johannesson, now the director of Tjärnö Marine Laboratory at the University of Gothenberg. How can a species contain multiple distinct phenotypes — or sets of traits — without separating into two species? 'He had quite a job to try to convince his colleagues that there were inherited differences and local adaptation within species,' she said."

https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-ecotypes-harbor-the-genetic-memory-of-a-species-past-20260521/