What characterizes temporal isolation?

Temporal isolation is characterized by species being active or breeding at different times, which prevents them from mating with each other. This form of isolation can occur in various ways, such as differences in the timing of reproduction throughout the year, or even differences in the time of day that species are active.

For example, one species may breed in the spring, while another may breed in the autumn. Because their reproductive periods do not overlap, they remain reproductively isolated from one another, despite potentially being in the same geographical area. This mechanism helps contribute to the speciation process by ensuring that gene flow between the populations is minimized, allowing them to evolve independently over time.

In contrast, the other options pertain to different types of barriers that prevent species from interbreeding. While mating rituals relate to behavioral isolation and physical incompatibility addresses morphological barriers, both of these are distinct from the concept of temporal isolation, which specifically regards the timing of reproductive activity. Geographical separation refers to physical barriers that divide populations but does not explicitly address the timing aspect essential to temporal isolation.