If there is one certainty about speciation, it is that those
who research the process are able to disagree about
almost anything. Arguments have raged over how to
define species, over the importance of spatial separation
and, more recently, over whether peaks of differentiation
in genome scans might point to barrier loci. The
debate calling attention to the shortcomings of searching
for ‘genomic islands’ (Noor & Bennett, 2009;
Cruickshank & Hahn, 2014) has been important to clarify
where we are heading before scarce research funding
is blown on tortuous journeys (sensu Baird, 2017).
With our review (Ravinet et al., 2017), we aimed to
clarify some of the issues surrounding interpretations of
genome scan data and to suggest a practical way forward
in dealing with the confounding factors that
might obscure the genomic signal of reproductive isolation
(RI). As the commentaries in this issue show, there
is clearly still room for discussion and deeper understanding,
as well as a penchant for inventive and maritime
themed titles. In the interest of space, we will not
respond to all the points the commentaries make;
instead, our aim here is to highlight, and expand a little,
on some of the common themes raised.
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)