Evolution in an Urbanizing World
The Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology is gearing up for their annual meeting next week. And just like previous years, there are some amazing urban talks and posters that we want to highlight here! But we can’t do it without your help. We’re looking for contributors who will be attending the meeting to be... Continue Reading →
A pit-fall is only as good as the location is deployed. Cities can provide large shaded areas with a layer of soil suitable for trap building. Check out our blog to find out how Wormlion larvae use walls to deploy the perfect pit-fall trap.
A new book of interest to those working in urban ecosystems! It looks pretty interesting and I'm eager to dig into it a bit more. Here's a summary from the author, Scott Kellogg: Merging together the fields of urban ecology, environmental justice, and urban environmental education, Urban Ecosystem Justice promotes building fair, accessible, and mutually beneficial relationships... Continue Reading →
A recent publication in Nature Communications goes above and beyond in studying how selection on adaptive and/or maladaptive gene expression plasticity may be regulating thermal tolerance in urban anoles. The importance of plasticity in the colonization of new environments is a widely-accepted argument, however, the role of plasticity in facilitating adaptive evolution remains controversial. Plasticity... Continue Reading →
Everyone welcome the newest member of our editorial team here at Life in the City, Kevin Avilés-Rodríguez! Kevin is a postdoctoral researcher at Fordham University. His dissertation research focused on the interaction of global change drivers on the ecology and evolution of Anolis lizards. His work incorporates genomics, ecology, behavior, and morphology to understand how hurricanes, urbanization,... Continue Reading →
Which Traits Influence Bird Survival in the City? A Review Swaroop Patankar, Ravi Jambhekar, Kulbhushansingh Ramesh Suryawanshi, and Harini Nagendra Abstract Urbanization poses a major threat to biodiversity worldwide. We focused on birds as a well-studied taxon of interest, in order to review literature on traits that influence responses to urbanization. We review 226 papers... Continue Reading →
Recent spread of blue tits into the Barcelona urban environment: morphological differences and the role of balanced dispersal Juan Carlos Senar & Mats Björklund Abstract Rates of phenotypic change are greater in cities than in any other habitat. Consequently, urban habitats are an ideal experimental area to study contemporary evolution and adaptation. A key question... Continue Reading →
Bioindicator snake shows genomic signatures of natural and anthropogenic barriers to gene flow Damian C. Lettoof, Vicki A. Thomson, Jari Cornelis, Philip W. Bateman, Fabien Aubret, Marthe M. Gagnon, and Brenton von Takach Abstract Urbanisation alters landscapes, introduces wildlife to novel stressors, and fragments habitats into remnant ‘islands’. Within these islands, isolated wildlife populations can... Continue Reading →
Phenotypic variation in urban environments: mechanisms and implications M.J. Thompson, P. Capilla-Lasheras, D.M. Dominoni, D. Réale, & A. Charmantier Abstract In the past decade, numerous studies have explored how urbanisation affects the mean phenotypes of populations, but it remains unknown how urbanisation impacts phenotypic variation, a key target of selection that shapes, and is shaped... Continue Reading →
Parallel, urban-driven phenotypic changes There is increasing evidence that, for a given species, individuals inhabiting cities often differ from their counterparts outside of cities. Such differences may result from individuals suffering from environmental conditions in cities. For instance, my colleague Michela Corsini showed that, in the great tit (Parus major) and the blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus),... Continue Reading →
The European Starling Sturnus vulgaris Ever had such a fondness for an author, that you wanted to recreate what they wrote, in real life? That’s exactly what Eugene Schieffelin did with the European Starling in Central Park, NYC, when he decided to introduce as many of the birds mentioned in Shakespeare’s works to North America... Continue Reading →
Urbanization extends flight phenology and leads to local adaptation of seasonal plasticity in Lepidoptera Thomas Merckx, Matthew E. Nielsen, Janne Heliölä, Mikko Kuussaari, Lars B. Pettersson, Juha Pöyry, Juha Tiainen, Karl Gotthard, and Sami M. Kivelä Abstract Urbanization is gaining force globally, which challenges biodiversity, and it has recently also emerged as an agent of... Continue Reading →
Consistency and plasticity of risk-taking behaviour towards humans at the nest in urban and forest great tits, Parus major Vincze, Ernő, Veronika Bókony, László Zsolt Garamszegi, Gábor Seress, Ivett Pipoly, Csenge Sinkovics, Krisztina Sándor, and András Liker Abstract Urban animals often show bolder behaviour towards humans than their nonurban conspecifics. However, it is unclear to... Continue Reading →
Growing up in a new world: trait divergence between rural, urban, and invasive populations of an amphibian urban invader Max Mühlenhaupt, James Baxter-Gilbert, Buyisile G. Makhubo, Julia L. Riley, John Measey Abstract Cities are focal points of introduction for invasive species. Urban evolution might facilitate the success of invasive species in recipient urban habitats. Here... Continue Reading →
Does melanin-based plumage coloration reflect health status of free-living birds in urban environments? Hani Amir Aouissi, Mostefa Ababsa, Aissam Gaagai, Zihad Bouslama, Yassine Farhi, and Haroun Chenchouni Abstract Background: Ecological functions and processes in urban ecosystems are governed by various human activities. City-adapted and city-exploiting animal species are expected to present certain specific behavioral and physiological... Continue Reading →
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