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The mechanisms of reproductive isolation have been classified in a number of ways. Zoologist Ernst Mayr classified the mechanisms of reproductive isolation in two broad categories: pre-zygotic for those that act before fertilization (or before mating in the case of animals) and post-zygotic for those that act after it. [5]
Support for the reproductive character displacement hypothesis comes from observations of sympatric species in overlapping habitats in nature. Increased prezygotic isolation, which is associated with reproductive character displacement, has been observed in cicadas of genus Magicicada, stickleback fish, and the flowering plants of the genus Phlox.
Isolation by distance is distantly related to speciation. Multiple types of isolating barriers, namely prezygotic isolating barriers, including isolation by distance, are considered the key factor in keeping populations apart, limiting gene flow. [4]
[3]: 354 [4] [5] Differences in behavior or biology that inhibit formation of hybrid zygotes are termed prezygotic isolation. Reinforcement can be shown to be occurring (or to have occurred in the past) by measuring the strength of prezygotic isolation in a sympatric population in comparison to an allopatric population of the same species.
Reinforcement, under his definition, included prezygotic divergence and complete post-zygotic isolation. [18] Servedio and Noor include any detected increase in prezygotic isolation as reinforcement, as long as it is a response to selection against mating between two different species. [4]
Post-mating isolation occurs between the process of copulation (or pollination) and fertilization—also known as gametic isolation. [1]: 232 Some studies involving gametic isolation in Drosophila fruit flies, [93] ground crickets, [94] and Helianthus plants [95] suggest that there may be a role in ecology; however it is undetermined. [4]
This tends to happen when the two populations have strong reproductive isolation and significant overlap in their niche. A possible way to prevent extinction is if there is an advantage to being rare. For example, sexual imprinting and male-male competition [clarification needed] may prevent extinction. [2]
Allochronic speciation (also known as allochronic isolation, or temporal isolation) is a form of speciation (specifically ecological speciation) arising from reproductive isolation that occurs due to a change in breeding time that reduces or eliminates gene flow between two populations of a species.