What is the ecological species concept?
Ecological processes may produce discrete species The ecological species concept supposes that ecological niches in nature occupy discrete adaptive zones with gaps between. The idea is that some sets of adaptations work well in nature, but others do not, and this explain the forms and interbreeding patterns of species. If two ecological species interbreed, they may produce offspring that fall in a gap between two niches; the offspring will not be adapted. Selection will tend to favor interbreeding with another organism possessing adaptations to at least approximately the same environment. Imagine the parasites exploiting two host species. The host species will differ in certain respects, perhaps in where they live or their morphology, and the parasites will evolve appropriate adaptations to penetrate one or the other host. The parasites will tend to become two discrete species, because their environmental resources (hosts in this case) come in discrete forms. For instance, the Colorado
