Evolution in an Urbanizing World
The piece below was posted in 2018 by A.Z. Andis Arietta a PhD candidate in the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies at Yale University -- I recently rediscovered it and thought it would be of interest to our followers. Check out Andis's blog here. In schools, we are taught that evolution is an imperceptibly... Continue Reading →
As we know, the landscape of urban areas is changing rapidly as land is converted from natural to anthropogenic space. Additionally, new technology has allowed us to collect more data at a lower cost than ever before. The combination of these two events led my co-authors and me to ask "Are biologists keeping up with... Continue Reading →
Earlier this week, the wonderful women over at Women of Fisheries posted about the struggles of going to the bathroom when doing fieldwork on a boat. They point out that going to the bathroom can be especially uncomfortable for women since it's more difficult to easily pee off the side of the boat due to... Continue Reading →
For the past 1.5 years, we (the editors of LITC) have been working to bring together new empirical urban evolution research as well as novel reviews and perspectives. While this research has trickled out online over the past few months we're excited that it is officially published in Evolutionary Applications' first issue of 2021. This... Continue Reading →
Last year I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Malle Carrasco-Harris at the International Urban Wildlife Conference (#IUWC2019). Carrasco-Harris has been studying the role urbanization plays in the behavior of Eastern Copperhead snakes (Agkistrodon contortrix) and while we might not think of snakes as congruent with cities, multiple species of snakes have been able to... Continue Reading →
Urban areas around the world are an interesting combination of non-native and native species. In London, urban foxes are a common sight and because of this, we would predict that urban foxes have evolved due to differing selection factors in cities. For mammalogists, examing and comparing skulls is a common way to measure changes that... Continue Reading →
If you're reading this blog you probably enjoy watching wildlife. There is a thrill that comes with seeing a wild animal sharing space with you. However, in my time researching urban wildlife I've come across dozens of people who seem to think that urban wildlife need humans to survive. In his book, The Global Pigeon,... Continue Reading →
We often think about how the construction of new buildings, parking lots, and industrial areas will impact the local wildlife. And, indeed, governments require environmental impact surveys and ongoing monitoring when vulnerable species are present. However, it wasn't until I saw the paper "Music Festival Makes Hedgehogs Move: How Individuals Cope Behaviorally in Response to... Continue Reading →
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 interaction may be particularly sensitive to urbanization because the species involved may be responding to... Continue Reading →
Once on the brink of extinction, thanks to conservation efforts the Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) has made a comeback. This predator can be found across North America to Northern Mexico and once had an estimated population size of 300,000-500,000. However, the use of DDT disrupted the bird's ability to metabolize calcium and resulted in birds... Continue Reading →
https://twitter.com/brown_birds/status/1276523670530224128?s=20 I was recently browsing through Twitter and came across this fantastic tweet by Rafael Marcondes showing a flock of white-eyed parakeets (Psittacara leucophthalmus) gathering on a building in the Tatuapé neighborhood of São Paulo. Maisa Infante wrote the original post and explains that the parakeets eat the clay off the building's facade. White-eyed Parakeets... Continue Reading →
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 George Perry reviews several cases of human behavior impacting the genetics of urban organisms. For... Continue Reading →
In light of recent events, particularly the murder of George Floyd, harassment of Christian Cooper, and unjust actions against protesters supporting the #BlackLivesMatter movement, we at LITC want to acknowledge the systematic oppression and racism that exists in our field. We wholeheartedly support the Black community and communities of color, and firmly stand against racism.... Continue Reading →
Urbanization is rapidly transforming the Earth leading to drastic changes in the local ecological communities and changing the evolutionary dynamics of organisms living within cities. Previous research has shown that urbanization can prohibit, facilitate, or have little effect on gene flow but the scale at which these phenomena occur are highly dependent on the organism,... Continue Reading →
A couple of weeks ago I got a text from my mom, "Can you talk now?" A Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginians) had taken up residence in her planter box, and one of the joeys (baby opossum) was not moving. Being the family wildlife "expert" I was called in. We got on a video chat and... Continue Reading →
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