Where does speciation collide?

In evolutionary biology, speciation is the process by which one ancestral population splits into two or more descendant species that can no longer freely interbreed, usually as reproductive barriers accumulate between groups that have diverged in geography, ecology, or genetics. Cook's 1906 Factors of species-formation is an early naming of the process as a distinct problem, separating the making of new species from mere variation within one. The referent is the origin of biological diversity through the splitting of lineages, measured by reproductive isolation and genetic divergence. It shares only its spelling with the analytical chemist's meaning of the word.[1][2]

Unit

The degree of reproductive isolation and genetic divergence between diverging populations

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

Assessed by reproductive-isolation indices, genetic distance, and phylogenetic branching between populations

In analytical and environmental chemistry, speciation refers to the distribution of a chemical element among its distinct chemical forms (oxidation states, complexes, organometallic compounds, isotopes) within a sample, and speciation analysis is the work of identifying and measuring those forms rather than just the total amount of the element. The distinction matters because the forms differ sharply in mobility, bioavailability, and toxicity: mercury as a methylmercury complex is a different hazard from mercury metal. Templeton and colleagues' 2000 IUPAC recommendations fixed these definitions. The referent is the set of an element's species and their proportions, not the branching of biological lineages.[3]

Unit

The concentrations of each chemical form (species) of an element in a sample

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

Determined by hyphenated techniques that separate species and then quantify the element, such as chromatography coupled to atomic or mass spectrometry