Evolution in an Urbanizing World
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 →
Signs of Urban Evolution? Morpho-Functional Traits Co-variation Along a Nature-Urban Gradient in a Chagas Disease Vector Ana C. Montes de Oca-Aguilar, Adriana González-Martínez, Raúl Chan-González, Pilar Ibarra-López, Selene Smith-Ávila, Alex Córdoba-Aguilar, and Carlos N. Ibarra-Cerdeña Abstract Environmental change (i.e., urbanization) impacts species in contrasting ways, with some species experiencing benefits given their way of life... Continue Reading →
Carnivore Niche Partitioning in a Human Landscape Mauriel Rodriguez Curras, Emiliano Donadio, Arthur D. Middleton, and Jonathan N. Pauli Abstract To minimize competitive overlap, carnivores modify one of their critical niche axes: space, time, or resources. However, we currently lack rules for how carnivore communities operate in human-dominated landscapes. We simultaneously quantified overlap in the... Continue Reading →
Socio-ecological drivers of multiple zoonotic hazards in highly urbanized cities Matthew A. Combs, Pallavi A. Kache, Meredith C. VanAcker, Nichar Gregory, Laura D. Plimpton, Danielle M. Tufts, Maria P. Fernandez, Maria A. Diuk-Wasser Abstract The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is a stark reminder of the devastating consequences of pathogen spillover from wildlife to human hosts, particularly... Continue Reading →
Cat colonies and flight initiation distances of urban birds: Dealing with conflicting sources of citizen wellbeing Mario Díaz, Jonatan Fernández, Alicia Page Abstract Feral cat colonies in cities improve the wellbeing of people who feed and care for them, but they can have negative effects on biodiversity due to the predatory behaviour of cats. We... Continue Reading →
As of 2018, 55% of the world’s human population lives in villages, towns, or cities, and this figure grows annually as people increasingly adopt the urban lifestyle. The environmental consequences of this urban expansion are vast: grasslands, forests, and wetlands are replaced by roads, sidewalks, and buildings that make up the residential and commercial infrastructure... Continue Reading →
Downtown diet: a global meta-analysis of increased urbanization on the diets of vertebrate predators Siria Gámez, Abigail Potts, Kirby L. Mills, Aurelia A. Allen, Allyson Holman, Peggy M. Randon, Olivia Linson and Nyeema C. Harris Abstract Predation is a fundamental ecological process that shapes communities and drives evolutionary dynamics. As the world rapidly urbanizes, it... Continue Reading →
Urban trees support diverse wildlife, as Jamaican biologist and naturalist Damany Calder pointed out in Instagram this week with his observation of the Yellow-Billed Parrot (Amazona collaria), endemic to Jamaica and vulnerable to extinction, in a Black Olive tree (Terminalia buceras) in the middle of a busy parking lot of a shopping center in Kingston!... Continue Reading →
A Theory of City Biogeography and the Origin of Urban Species Robert R. Dunn, Joseph Robert Burger, Elizabeth J. Carlen, Amanda M. Koltz, Jessica E. Light, Ryan A. Martin, Jason Munshi-South, Lauren M. Nichols, Edward L. Vargo, Senay Yitbarek, Yuhao Zhao and Angélica Cibrián-Jaramillo Abstract Many of the choices humans make with regard to infrastructure, urban planning... Continue Reading →
Connectivity in the Urban Landscape (2015–2020): Who? Where? What? When? Why? and How? Todd R. Lookingbill, Emily S. Minor, Charles S. Mullis, Gabriela C. Nunez-Mir & Philip Johnson Abstract Purpose of Review This review uses a combination of narrative and systematic review techniques, including automated content analysis (ACA), to summarize the last 5 years of research... Continue Reading →
Cities offer an unprecedented global experiment for parallel evolutionary change: they similarly differ in several dimensions including climate, land cover, and pollution. Yet few studies examine evolutionary change across multiple cities, which is critical for identifying environmental characteristics that mediate adaptive responses. For example, city size, age, and habitat connectivity may all contribute to the... Continue Reading →
Where there are humans, there is food... delicious calorie rich food. And so much of it, well, it can keep a bear from hibernating! We've told you about wildlife and anthropogenic food before (check out: Raccoon Eats Your Bird Food, Juggling a Junk Food Diet, Eggroll Squirrel, and of course - Pizza Rat), and taking advantage... Continue Reading →
Variation in Hematological Indices, Oxidative Stress, and Immune Function Among Male Song Sparrows From Rural and Low-Density Urban Habitats Christopher G. Goodchild, Isaac VanDiest, Samuel J. Lane, Michelle Beck, Hallum Ewbank and Kendra B. Sewall Abstract A central theme in the field of ecology is understanding how environmental variables influence a species’ distribution. In the last... Continue Reading →
A new urban ecology book by Dr. Cylita Guy is out that highlights the work of multiple urban ecologists and evolutionary biologists, including many of our LITC contributors! What can city bees tell us about climate change? How are we changing coyote behavior? And what the heck is a science bike? Featuring the work of... Continue Reading →
Detecting patterns of vertebrate biodiversity across the multidimensional urban landscape Marina Alberti & Tianzhe Wang Abstract Explicit characterisation of the complexity of urban landscapes is critical for understanding patterns of biodiversity and for detecting the underlying social and ecological processes that shape them. Urban environments exhibit variable heterogeneity and connectivity, influenced by different historical contingencies,... Continue Reading →
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