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Evolution of Rat Crania in an Urban Environment
This week we are cross-posting from the Ecology & Evolution blog written by Dr. Emily Puckett and Elizabeth Carlen. Check out the original post here. Observations of numerous animal populations have documented morphometric changes in response to urbanization. Examples abound including: urban…
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Anoles Adapt to Beat the Urban Heat
Urban areas are hot. The urban heat island effect causes urbanized regions to be significantly warmer than nearby forested areas, and the tropical islands of the Caribbean are no exception to this pattern. Just spend a few minutes in the…
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Eastern Gray Squirrel Behavior in Urban Environments
Urbanization can significantly alter environments in ways that impact abundance and behavior of urban animals. Fewer natural predators and greater food availability – as well as increased contact with humans – may lead to altered stress responses, increased boldness, and…
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Monarchs, Milkweed, and Metal: Is Roadside Zinc Pollution Harming Butterflies?
Heavy metal pollution is a widespread threat to urban ecosystems. Although many types of heavy metals are required by organisms at trace levels, the environmental availability of heavy metals is increasing to potentially toxic levels due to human activities such…
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Urbanization Influences Pollinator-Mediated Plant Reproduction
If you’ve been following this blog, you’ll know that urbanization has an impact on the ecology and evolution of species. However, we know much about how urbanization affects species interactions. For example, plant-pollinator interactions may be particularly sensitive to urbanization…
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Video Recommendation: The City Animal Tier List!
The YouTube channel TierZoo makes a ton of cool videos about animals, specifically viewed through the lens of gaming, where they rank different animal species according to how successful they are at living in different habitats. Past videos have included…
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Ants in France: Urbanization without Isolation
In ecological studies, ants are commonly used as bio-indicators because they are able to respond to rapid changes in their environments. This also makes them a great system to use in urban studies given the rapid changes that urbanization poses…
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Toxic Toads in a Toxic World
The Common European Toad, Bufo bufo, is a pond-breeding amphibian found throughout Europe, including in urban environments. Ecological changes (e.g., predator communities) in anthropogenic habitats present novel challenges to the common toad, but abiotic changes (e.g., pollution) may also influence phenotypes in…
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