American geneticist who developed the concept of genetic drift and the adaptive landscape — key contributions to the mathematical foundations of evolutionary biology.
Genetic drift: random changes in gene frequency in small populations — a non-selective mechanism of evolution. Adaptive landscape (fitness landscape): a visualization of how fitness varies across genotype space — populations can get stuck on local adaptive peaks. Shifting balance theory: how populations can cross fitness valleys to reach higher peaks via drift, selection, and migration. Path coefficients: statistical method for analyzing causal relationships.
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