Cline (Biology)

In biology, an ecocline or simply cline (Greek: = to possess or exhibit gradient, to lean)is a term (coined by Julian Huxley in 1938) used to describe an ecotone in which a series of biocommunities display continuous gradient. More technically, clines consist of ecotypes or forms of species that exhibit gradual phenotypic and/or genetic differences over a geographical area, typically as a result of environmental heterogeneity. Genetically, clines result from the change of allele frequencies within the gene pool of the group of taxa in question. Clines may manifest in time and/or space. In ecology, spatial clines have led to gradient analysis where the abundance and distribution of organisms is rendered by sinusoidal curves on the plane. From these curves can be extracted that populations occupy zones of maximum and minimum presence, according to their special needs and tolerances imposed by their environment. Map of indigenous skin color distribution in the world based on Von Luschan's chromatic scale.

Klappentext

In biology, an ecocline or simply cline (Greek: = to possess or exhibit gradient, to lean)is a term (coined by Julian Huxley in 1938) used to describe an ecotone in which a series of biocommunities display continuous gradient. More technically, clines consist of ecotypes or forms of species that exhibit gradual phenotypic and/or genetic differences over a geographical area, typically as a result of environmental heterogeneity. Genetically, clines result from the change of allele frequencies within the gene pool of the group of taxa in question. Clines may manifest in time and/or space. In ecology, spatial clines have led to gradient analysis where the abundance and distribution of organisms is rendered by sinusoidal curves on the plane. From these curves can be extracted that populations occupy zones of maximum and minimum presence, according to their special needs and tolerances imposed by their environment. Map of indigenous skin color distribution in the world based on Von Luschan's chromatic scale.