Evolution in an Urbanizing World
Urban ecology, although a burgeoning field, is becoming massive. In this field, there is much to think about when developing a question investigating the effect of “urbanization” on a particular species. Even within “urbanization” (which most urban ecologists recognize as just semantics and not a clear definition), there are many quantifications for this (see Moll... Continue Reading →
The Bronx High School of Science, a New York City high school located near Jerome Park Reservoir in the Bronx, hosts an unique rich biological environment, in the midst of urban life. To better understand this environment, we, a group of five students under the mentorship of Emily Schmidt, Tracy LaGrassa, and Sunny Corrao, initiated... Continue Reading →
Many urban wildlife biologists face unique challenges when trying to capture their study organisms. Traditional methods that are used in remote areas are often not available to urban wildlife biologists, either because the method requires traps that the public tampers with (though this problem does happen to non-urban biologists as well), because urban animals are... Continue Reading →
Raptors are making a comeback in cities around the world, thanks to the discontinuation of DDT. We've highlighted raptors including Red-tailed Hawks and Peregrine Falcons previously in our Urban Observation of the Week. Within cities, pigeon and rat populations provide ample food and researchers in many cities are investigating what resources and landscape variables dictate... Continue Reading →
Urbanization impacts species in many different ways, including behavior, morphology, and physiology. Although many of the documented phenotypic shifts show evidence of a genetic basis, the actual genetic differences and the genes they occur in are unknown for most urban adaptations. In fact, it seems we know very little at the genetic level regarding which... Continue Reading →
One way that animals may adapt to urban environments is by expanding their diet to include anthropogenic food, as discussed in the earlier post “Is Anthropogenic Food Waste Driving the Evolution of Urban Animals?”. But how can we tell if urban animals are actually consuming enough anthropogenic food to change physiology and drive evolution? We... Continue Reading →
Collecting samples in urban environments can present some challenges (as Matt Combs describes in "The Good, The Bad, and The Smelly" and Jane Remfert describes in “Urban Residential Field Tip”). As someone working on pigeons in Northeastern cities, I’ve encountered problems while simply trying to collect my samples. Many ornithologists use mist nets, but these... Continue Reading →
Many people don't think about cities as great places to observe wildlife, and most people have no idea what plants and animals live in the city with us! Say you’re walking around in the city and you see an interesting plant or animal that you want to identify. Without a guidebook or nature expert, it’s likely... Continue Reading →
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