Evolution in an Urbanizing World
The annual Joint Meeting of Icthyologists and Herpetologists (JMIH) kicks off today in Snowbird, Utah. This is one of my favorite conferences so I'm sad I will not be attending this year. And unfortunately, none of our contributors are attending this meeting either this year (that I know of), so we will not be able... Continue Reading →
Fireflies are great little bugs (actually beetles) that come out on warm summer evenings. They dance around the air with a light display that can mesmerize you into a lull and signals to females that they are ready to mate. Even the larvae are able to glow, but their glow is a warning that they... Continue Reading →
We've talked before here on Life in the City about behavioral shifts related to fear and boldness in urban animals (check out: Skirting Skinks: Are Lizards Learning to Live Among Humans?, No city for shy dog, Concrete Escape: Increased Wariness of Anoles). Although it is clear that urban species experience behavioral modifications in response to urban... Continue Reading →
The 56th annual conference of the Animal Behavior Society and the 36th International Ethological Conference will come together for Behaviour 2019 in Chicago, Illinois from July 23 - 27. There are several presentations that are bound to be of interest to the urban evolution community including a full symposium on animal behavior on an urbanized... Continue Reading →
Last week I was watching some top-notch tennis on TV as Coco Gauff battled to stay in at Wimbledon. I was amused when a small bird, what seems to be a Wagtail (Motacilla alba), flew out onto the court and perched calmly on the net! Not being a huge tennis fan, I was surprised and... Continue Reading →
You can't live near humans if you're afraid. Fleeing constantly can be very costly, so generally animals near humans tend to become accustomed to them. A new research compares skinks in Mo'orea island to see if their escape response varies and if skinks living with more humans have adjusted their responses accordingly.
Summertime is prime for doing field work for many scientists, including those of us that work on urban organisms. I was recently out in the field collecting bugs for one of the projects I work on. The first milkweed I found, looking for milkweed bugs, was this one below. The white flowers that are next... Continue Reading →
Did you miss out on Evolution 2019 last week in Providence, Rhode Island? Were you overwhelmed with all of the urban talks at the meeting? Not to worry, here's a recap of what you missed. We brought you a total of 20 blog posts from 10 contributors, including 5 new contributors to the blog! Check... Continue Reading →
Here’s an idea for the newest weight loss fad: live in a city. In her presentation at Evolution 2019, Dr. Sarah Diamond showed that the resting metabolic rate of urban acorn ants was higher than that of rural colonies. This research, conducted by Dr. Diamond and coauthors Lacy Chick and James Waters, looked at the metabolic... Continue Reading →
When it comes to current studies on urban plant evolution, The Global Urban Evolution Project (GLUE Project) is by far the most robust in terms of replication at a global scale. This worldwide collaboration spans every continent except Antarctica and includes hundreds of contributing researchers. The GLUE Project aims to answer two main questions: 1)... Continue Reading →
Who hasn’t picked up a fluffy dandelion, blew a deep breath, and smiled as the seeds fly along on the wind? But did you know that those seeds are possibly clones of the parent plant? Dandelions (Taraxacum sp.) can produce seeds asexually, a process called apomixis that involves no fusion of egg and sperm. The... Continue Reading →
A major outstanding question in urban evolution (and evolutionary biology in general) is whether adaptation occurs in similar ways in different populations and across species boundaries. In other words, can the common selective pressures of urban environments lead to convergent adaptation? In my doctoral research, I found that the Puerto Rican crested anole, Anolis cristatellus, adapted... Continue Reading →
Humans often drive quick and pronounced changes to the environment. When faced with novel environmental stressors, natural populations must adapt to changing conditions, migrate to a new location to avoid the stressors, or face extinction. Adaptation to stressful environments can arise through a number of mechanisms. First, populations can adapt using genetic variation already present... Continue Reading →
Habitat fragmentation associated with urbanisation if often thought to limit the movement of mobile species, potentially leading to genetically distinct clusters of individuals across a city. Identifying the landscape features that act as barriers to dispersal and drive population differentiation has become a central goal in recent urban evolution research. Javier Monzón, an assistant professor... Continue Reading →
With increased human movement across the globe comes the increased risk of transporting exotic species, which may establish and disrupt local native communities. In marine environments, boats are frequent vectors for the movement of exotic species, which often get transported across regions in ship’s ballast water, as has occurred with invasive Zebra mussels in North... Continue Reading →
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