The opposite of panmixis.
Nonrandom mating can be due to assortative mating, inbreeding, limiting mixing (dissemination) within populations, or due also to a relative isolation of populations. Contrast random mating.
Both poor dissemination of individuals and isolation of populations can be described as consequences of an imposition of spatial structure on populations. For example, geographical barriers inherently impose such structure on populations. Furthermore, the resulting nonrandom mating can represent the first steps towards speciation.
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