Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 12, 2026

Biology of Microbial Communities - Interview
Published on: May 28, 2007
Ecological character displacement: glass half full or half empty?
Yoel E Stuart1, Jonathan B Losos
1Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. yestuart@oeb.harvard.edu
Abstract:
Ecological character displacement (ECD), the evolutionary divergence of competing species, has oscillated wildly in scientific opinion. Initially thought to play a central role in community assembly and adaptive radiation, ECD recovered from a 1980s nadir to present-day prominence on the strength of many case studies compiled in several influential reviews. However, we reviewed recent studies and found that only nine of 144 cases are strong examples that have ruled out alternative explanations for an ECD-like pattern. We suggest that the rise in esteem of ECD has outpaced available data and that more complete, rather than simply more, case studies are needed. Recent years have revealed that evolutionary change can be observed as it occurs, opening the door to experimental field studies as a new approach to studying ECD.
Related Concept Videos
Ecological Disturbance
Ecological Niches
Habitat Fragmentation
Distribution and Dispersion
Social Traps
Fundamental Attribution Error
