Evolution in an Urbanizing World
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 noon heat in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and you will beg for the cool reprieve... Continue Reading →
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 decreased vigilance compared to non-urban populations. The eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) has been very... Continue Reading →
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 as mining, industrial combustion, and automobile use. A key goal for ecotoxicologists, evolutionary biologists, and... Continue Reading →
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 because both plants and their insect pollinators have been shown to respond to urbanization positively... Continue Reading →
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 on ecosystems. However, there studies that look at the evolutionary patterns of ants in response... Continue Reading →
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 these landscapes. Nevertheless, we know relatively little about how these urban-dwellers (and specifically their toxins)... Continue Reading →
Many organisms seem to do poorly in urban areas, and it is unclear which organisms will become extirpated in cities. Typically, organisms that are experiencing population declines are ones that we would think are negatively impacted by urbanization. However, this may not always be the case. Recently, Ziege and co-authors studied populations of the European... Continue Reading →
PDF version of infographic Download Full paper here: Schmidt, C., Domaratzki, M., Kinnunen, R. P., Bowman, J., & Garroway, C. J. (2020). Continent-wide effects of urbanization on bird and mammal genetic diversity. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 287(1920), 20192497. doi:10.1098/rspb.2019.2497
Urban areas are known to be prone to habitat fragmentation. We've seen the intense urbanization in New York City lead to the rapid divergence of mouse populations and the subdivision of bobcats in Los Angeles. But the adverse effects of habitat fragmentation are difficult to quantify given that they differ based on the ability of... Continue Reading →
Urbanization can impact wildlife in different ways, depending on the organism and how it interacts with humans and the built environment. Geographical barriers may limit or prevent an organism from moving through a city and an organism's behavioral variability (particularly its ability to tolerate humans) may also influence if and how it disperses throughout a... Continue Reading →
As habitats become increasingly urbanized, wildlife are exposed to artificial light at night (ALAN). Greater exposure to ALAN can have detrimental effects on animal physiology, such as suppressing components of the host immune system. However, how these changes ultimately affect infectious disease dynamics remains poorly understood. Meredith Kernbach, a PhD candidate at the University of... Continue Reading →
When you live in the outskirts of the city, every once in a while you may spot a bobcat in your neighborhood. In fact, we have had a few urban observation posts of neighborhood bobcats. But how are these urban bobcats fairing compared to ones that stay in their natural habitat? Recently, Kozakiewicz and co-authors... Continue Reading →
The decisions that a parent makes or conditions that a parent experiences can influence the survival and fitness of their offspring. These transgenerational effects, in which impacts of the environment on one generation impact subsequent generations, are widespread and can originate with both mothers and fathers. In organisms that make eggs, the environments mothers experience... Continue Reading →
Urban areas are easy to find during the night as they quite literally light up. Urban light pollution disrupts biological processes from gene expression to ecosystem composition across multiple taxa, including birds, insects, mammals, and fishes. With ever-increasing urbanization, understanding the effects of artificial light at night (ALAN) on urban organisms is crucial to future... Continue Reading →
Heavy metals, such as lead and mercury, are common pollutants in human-affected ecosystems, including cities. These metals can bioaccumulate, or reach high concentrations in exposed organisms, because heavy metals may be stored in some tissues, like fats, and are difficult for organisms to remove from their bodies. High levels of heavy metals have negative impacts... Continue Reading →
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