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Understanding the Distribution of Urban Rat-Associated Pathogens
Pathogens are organisms that cause disease, and zoonotic pathogens are those that can be transmitted between animals and people. Where pathogens are found can be determined by environmental changes. Urbanization is known to mediate environmental changes in cities as well…
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Big in the City: Urban Eco-Evolutionary Dynamics in Bumblebee Body Size and Pollination
Urbanization is arguably one of the most rapid and conspicuous human-driven environmental changes, and fragmentation is one of the most pervasive outcomes of urbanization. Patches of vegetation within the built matrix of a typical cityscape, such as parks and gardens,…
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CSEE2020: Variation in Pollinator-mediated Plant Reproduction Across an Urbanization Gradient
Recently, Ruth Rivkin shared some of her dissertation work with the Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution (CSEE). Urban habitats are more fragmented and degraded than nonurban habitats, which can impact both the ecology and evolution of species interactions. Species…
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CSEE2020: Human Influences on Darwin’s Finches
The Galápagos Islands are renowned for their unique, endemic biodiversity which inspired Charles Darwin to develop his theory of evolution by natural selection. In particular, Darwin’s finches are an iconic example of adaptive radiation due to natural selection, where ~18…
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ABS2020: Using Acoustic Signals to Reduce Avian Collisions with Man-made Structures
As areas become more urbanized, fauna are continually exposed to novel anthropogenic structures and are forced to adapt. However, adapting is not always an option. For example, we see that individuals across various groups have not adapted to roads and…
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Some Thoughts on Urban Snakes
I’m partial to the creepy, crawly, scaly, slithering critters. I spend most of my time thinking about urban lizards, but recently started wondering about urban snakes. To my great disappointment, I wasn’t able to find many recent publications on urban…
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Cities and Behavioral Adaptations
It’s clear that urbanization alters native animal and plant communities around the world. However, while some organisms become locally extinct as anthropogenic forces change the land, other species survive or even thrive in this urban landscape. A recent paper by…
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IALE-North America 2020 Symposium: Landscape genetics as a tool for managing human-impacted landscapes
This summer the International Association for Landscape Ecology – North America (IALE-NA) hosted an annual meeting that was originally scheduled to be in person in Toronto, ON, Canada, but due to Covid-19 it was hosted online. This was my first…
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