适应性辐射的演化过程依赖于很多生态因素，但相反的过程、即适应性辐射对生态系统的效应是什么呢？令人吃惊的是，关于演化分化对生态系统的效应人们几乎没有做什么研究工作。
现在，Harmon等人在对一对棘鱼物种的生态系统效应所做的试验中演示了这一效应。这对棘鱼最近经历了一次适应性辐射，现在生活在不同的小生境中，而该生态系统中还有一个与它们共同祖先相似的泛化物种。实验中所用的鱼来自加拿大不列颠哥伦比亚省Texada岛上的湖中，实验在池塘水中型生态箱中进行。
实验表明，物种分化会改变猎物群落结构和总生态系统生产力，还会通过对溶解有机质的间接效应改变系统中光透射的光谱性质。即使是在较短的时间尺度上（实验时间为10星期），最近分化的物种也会对一个生态系统产生很不相同的影响。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐原始出处：
Nature 458, 1167-1170 (30 April 2009) | doi:10.1038/nature07974
Evolutionary diversification in stickleback affects ecosystem functioning
Luke J. Harmon1,2,5, Blake Matthews2,3,5, Simone Des Roches1, Jonathan M. Chase4, Jonathan B. Shurin2 & Dolph Schluter2
1 Department of Biological Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho 83844-3051, USA
2 Biodiversity Research Centre and Zoology Department, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada
3 EAWAG, Aquatic Ecology, Seestrasse 79, 6047 Kastanienbaum, Switzerland
4 Department of Biology, Washington University, St Louis, Missouri 63130, USA
5 These authors contributed equally to this work.
Explaining the ecological causes of evolutionary diversification is a major focus of biology, but surprisingly little has been said about the effects of evolutionary diversification on ecosystems1, 2, 3. The number of species in an ecosystem and their traits are key predictors of many ecosystem-level processes, such as rates of productivity, biomass sequestration and decomposition4, 5. Here we demonstrate short-term ecosystem-level effects of adaptive radiation in the threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) over the past 10,000 years. These fish have undergone recent parallel diversification in several lakes in coastal British Columbia, resulting in the formation of two specialized species (benthic and limnetic) from a generalist ancestor6. Using a mesocosm experiment, we demonstrate that this diversification has strong effects on ecosystems, affecting prey community structure, total primary production, and the nature of dissolved organic materials that regulate the spectral properties of light transmission in the system. However, these ecosystem effects do not simply increase in their relative strength with increasing specialization and species richness; instead, they reflect the complex and indirect consequences of ecosystem engineering by sticklebacks. It is well known that ecological factors influence adaptive radiation7, 8. We demonstrate that adaptive radiation, even over short timescales, can have profound effects on ecosystems.
