Evolution in an Urbanizing World
Although I wasn't able to attend the meeting, the International Urban Wildlife Conference looks like it was a great success and I have enjoyed following along thanks to our great contributors and the hard work of co-editor Elizabeth Carlen. Here are some highlights: We Have Stickers! I drew these to pass out at the meeting... Continue Reading →
For most of us, our interest in urban ecology is rooted in the desire to better understand and conserve biodiversity. Once researchers better understand the science behind issues facing our urban species, the next step is engaging the wider public on how to beset conserve these species. This theme was present almost every talk I... Continue Reading →
Following the plenary at IUWC 2019, this session focused on integrating urban ecology research with community engagement. The speakers here built on some of the ideas expressed by Chris Schell previously on this site. Pigeons & Passers-by Elizabeth Carlen, an editor for this blog and PhD student in the Biological Sciences department at Fordham University... Continue Reading →
Suboptimal movement across the urban landscape can lead to injury or death and, thus, has a high fitness cost. Many cities have developed wildlife corridors that allow animals to move through the urban matrix while reducing their chances of being struck by a vehicle. But what if impervious surfaces, such as bike paths, can act... Continue Reading →
This session included three very different community science projects--from otters in Singapore to cats around the world! Otters! Philip Johns, of Yale-NUS College, studies the foraging behaviors in urban smooth-coated otters in Singapore. Singapore is very urban, and all of its waterways are highly modified--similar to those in Los Angeles. Despite this, about 18 families... Continue Reading →
Aaron Anderson is a Ph.D. student in Horticulture at Oregon State University, where he works in the Garden Ecology Lab. Aaron’s project was inspired by the Garbuzov and Ratnieks paper entitled ‘Listmania: the strengths and weaknesses of lists of garden plants to help pollinators’. In this paper, the authors note that many pollinator plant lists... Continue Reading →
A critical issue when managing for habitat in urban areas is habitat size. What is the minimum viable patch size for a species of concern? Can multiple smaller patches, such as yards and parks, collectively “scale up” to provide connected, suitable habitat? Michael Vermeulen, an M.S student at Portland State University, spoke at IUWC2019 about... Continue Reading →
Urban yards have a large potential for providing habitat, and important considerations when studying these spaces are the tritrophic interactions between plant species, herbivores, and predators. Dr. Marion Dresner, Professor at Portland State University, has spent years studying these interactions in backyard habitats and is particularly interested in understanding how the management of backyards provides... Continue Reading →
Upstate New York has a deer overabundance problem. The subject of conservation efforts after hunters nearly wiped them out in the 1800s and released from predation pressure, deer population numbers have exploded creating conflict with humans and putting important plant species under intense browsing pressure. Dr. Bernrd Blossey and Dr. Paul Curtis at Cornell University's... Continue Reading →
If you live in a city you may not realize that urban populations of bats are all around you. But Liza Lehrer and Shannon Pederson, who work on urban bats, know that bats are common in cities, even if you don't always see them. Lehrer started off by describing how bats are under threat due... Continue Reading →
The International Urban Wildlife Conference kicked off Monday morning in Portland, OR with a Plenary Session titled "Collaboration and Conservation: Applications to Urban Wildlife" featuring talks by Dr. Chris Schell, Deeohn Ferris, and Bob Sallaniger followed by a panel discussion. Dr. Schell, Assistant Professor of Urban Ecology at the University of Washington, Tacoma and Life... Continue Reading →
I’m excited to share an update on my foray into urban ecology and evolution research as an undergraduate! I've been working in the Revell Lab at the University of Massachusetts Boston since my freshman year. I've reported here before about some of my experiences in the field working on urban anoles. Over the past couple of... Continue Reading →
The 2019 International Urban Wildlife Conference will take place in Portland, Oregon from June 2nd-5th. This meeting is a great chance to connect with other scientists studying urban evolution and hear about the wide range of research that is being conducted in urban environments. Talk submission has already closed, but registration is open until May... Continue Reading →
This post is part of our series covering the large number of urban evolution manuscripts that were published in August 2018 in the special issue "The Evolution of City Life" in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Urbanization can create new pathways of introduction for invasive species. The recently introduced invasive grass Brachypodium... Continue Reading →
We invite contributions to a special feature on evolution in urban environments to be published in Evolutionary Applications in 2020. Instructions on how to be considered for this special feature are provided below. Urban areas are among the fastest growing ecosystems on earth and the driver of local and global climate change. Despite this importance, little... Continue Reading →
Proudly powered by WordPress | Theme: Baskerville 2 by Anders Noren.