淘汰圧

• 読み: とうたあつ
• ローマ字: tōtaatsu
• 漢字の分解: 淘 (tō) — wash and sift; 汰 (ta) — sift, eliminate; 圧 (atsu/o-) — pressure, push
• 発音: /toː.ta.a.tsɯ/

意味

Selection pressure; the environmental or ecological force that influences the survival and reproduction of organisms with certain traits, driving evolutionary change.

A compound noun combining 淘汰 (natural selection, elimination) and 圧 (pressure). Strong selection pressure causes rapid evolutionary change; weak pressure allows greater genetic diversity to persist. The concept is central to modern evolutionary biology and is also applied metaphorically in economics and business to describe competitive forces that eliminate less fit entities.

例文

1. 急激な気候変動が強い淘汰圧をもたらし、適応できない種が次々と絶滅した。
2. 抗生物質の広範な使用が耐性菌に対する淘汰圧として機能し、耐性化を加速させた。
3. 淘汰圧が低い孤立した島では、捕食者から逃げる必要がなく飛べない鳥が進化した。

使い方ガイド

場面: evolutionary biology, ecology, genetics, academic writing

トーン: neutral

起源と歴史

Compound of 淘汰 (from 淘 tō — to wash and sift + 汰 ta — to sift, eliminate) and 圧 (atsu — pressure). The biological concept was formalised in Darwinian evolutionary theory and the Japanese term emerged with the spread of evolutionary biology.

文化的背景

時代: Modern

世代: Academic

社会的背景: Specialist