FLORISTIC SYMBOLICS OF LINA KOSTENKO POETRY

The article considers floristic vocabulary of Lina Kostenko poetry in the linguocultulorogical aspect; mythological semantics and symbolic of floristic names were determined in the poetry collection "Three hundred verses"; the link between symbolic meaning of flowers with totemic beliefs, between chthonic semantics of vegetation, solar myths were studied, peculiar traits of poetic arrangement were analyzed. Conclusions were drawn on the original poetic model of the mythic space that unites the worlds of heavens and the earth, rich in floristic images, enrooted in ancient totemic beliefs. The harmonic synergy of a man and the nature envisages the author's interpretation of universal floristic symbols in the limits of paradigm "flowers" – "myth" – "poet", wherein the flowers acquire symbolic meaning of the eternity of life born in the cosmogony depths of mythological archaic. In the poetry of Lina Kostenko an amazing unification of the internal world of a man with the realities of the world of nature takes place, the natural elements turn into cosmogony forces that create the renewed mythical space, wherein the flowers are the symbols of time, live signs of times of year, and the color symbolizes life milestones of the poetess herself. Archaic mythological symbolic as an integral part of poetic text obtains a new meaning due to which an ancient past unites with modern times, floristic names are transformed into universal poetic symbols, disclose figurative world of poetry. The origins of floristic symbolic are enrooted into vegetation totemism, when the people respected different types of flowers and animals as prime ancestors, bestowed them with magic traits, chthonic semantics, considered them amulets and used separate types of plants as medicines or bloodless sacrifices in the gods' cults. A particular type of solar-floristic metaphor can be considered as a revelation of totemism, built on the grounds of metonymy, the majority of "floristic" lexemes, used by Lina Kostenko, stand as names for typical Ukrainian decorative plants, but the author's poetic arrangement makes every floristic composition of the poetess unparalleled.

A phenotypically plastic magic trait promoting reproductive isolation in sticklebacks?

This study identifies one possible mechanism whereby gene flow is interrupted in populations undergoing evolutionary divergence in sympatry; this is an important issue in evolutionary biology that remains poorly understood. Variation in trophic morphology was induced in three-spined stickleback by exposing them from an early age either to large benthic or to small pelagic prey. At sexual maturity, females given a choice between two breeding males, showed positive assortative mate choice for males raised on the same diet as themselves. The data indicate that this was mediated through a preference for males with trophic morphology similar to that of fish with which the females were familiar (from their pre-testing holding tanks). In trials where the female did not choose the most familiar male, the evidence suggests that either she had difficulty discriminating between two similar males or was positively choosing males with more extreme morphologies (more benthic-like or pelagic-like). This study has shown for the first time that expression of a plastic trait induced at an early age, not only results in specialisation for local foraging regimes but can also play a significant role in mate choice. This is equivalent to an environmentally induced, plastic version of the “magic traits” that promote ecologically-driven divergence in sympatry, hence the proposed descriptor “plastic magic trait”.

The Paradox Behind the Pattern of Rapid Adaptive Radiation: How Can the Speciation Process Sustain Itself Through an Early Burst?

Rapid adaptive radiation poses two distinct questions apart from speciation and adaptation: What happens after one speciation event and how do some lineages continue speciating through a rapid burst? We review major features of rapid radiations and their mismatch with theoretical models and speciation mechanisms. The paradox is that the hallmark rapid burst pattern of adaptive radiation is contradicted by most speciation models, which predict continuously decelerating diversification and niche subdivision. Furthermore, it is unclear if and how speciation-promoting mechanisms such as magic traits, phenotype matching, and physical linkage of coadapted alleles promote rapid bursts of speciation. We review additional mechanisms beyond ecological opportunity to explain rapid radiations: ( a) ancient adaptive alleles and the transporter hypothesis, ( b) sexual signal complexity, ( c) fitness landscape connectivity, ( d) diversity begets diversity, and ( e) plasticity first. We propose new questions and predictions connecting microevolutionary processes to macroevolutionary patterns through the study of rapid radiations.

A phenotypically plastic magic trait promoting reproductive isolation in sticklebacks?

This study identifies one possible mechanism whereby gene flow is interrupted in populations undergoing evolutionary divergence in sympatry; this is an important issue in evolutionary biology that remains poorly understood. Variation in trophic morphology was induced in three-spined stickleback by exposing them from an early age either to large benthic or to small pelagic prey. At sexual maturity, females given a choice between two breeding males, showed positive assortative mate choice for males raised on the same diet as themselves. The data indicate that this was mediated through a preference for males with trophic morphology similar to that of fish with which the females were familiar (from their pre-testing holding tanks). In trials where the female did not choose the most familiar male, the evidence suggests that either she had difficulty discriminating between two similar males or was positively choosing males with more extreme morphologies (more benthic-like or pelagic -like). This study has shown for the first time that expression of a plastic trait induced at an early age, not only results in specialisation for local foraging regimes but can also play a significant role in mate choice. This is equivalent to an environmentally induced, plastic version of the “magic traits” that promote ecologically-driven divergence in sympatry, hence the proposed descriptor “plastic magic trait”.

Ecological Speciation

This chapter examines how populations in different environments can fall at different stages along a continuum of progress toward ecological speciation. It traces how variation can be used to infer ecological speciation through either of two general approaches: (1) integrated signatures of reproductive isolation based on measures of gene flow, and (2) confirmation of the ecological basis of reproductive barriers. The chapter also addresses the rapidity of ecological speciation (rapid speciation), at what point progress toward ecological speciation becomes irreversible (speciation reversal), to what extent ecological speciation is driven by competitive (adaptive speciation) or reproductive (reinforcement) interactions, and how many traits (magic traits) and selective pressures (dimensionality) are involved.