2024/01/01 by Sean Stankowski, Asher D. Cutter, Ina Satokangas +42 · 3 voices · 1 citation
Environmental Science · Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies #Species Distribution and Climate Change #Plant and animal studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/evolinnean/kzae001
openalex publication_date 2024/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Abstract Speciation research—the scientific field focused on understanding the origin and diversity of species—has a long and complex history. While relevant to one another, the specific goals and activities of speciation researchers are highly diverse, and scattered across a collection of different perspectives. Thus, our understanding of speciation will benefit from efforts to bridge scientific findings and the diverse people who do the work. In this paper, we outline two ways of integrating speciation research: (i) scientific integration, through the bringing together of ideas, data, and approaches; and (ii) social integration, by creating ways for a diversity of researchers to participate in the scientific process. We then discuss five challenges to integration: (i) the multidisciplinary nature of speciation research, (ii) the complex language of speciation; (iii) a bias toward certain study systems; (iv) the challenges of working across scales; and (v) inconsistent measures and reporting standards. We provide practical steps that individuals and groups can take to help overcome these challenges, and argue that integration is a team effort in which we all have a role to play.