We are pleased to announce our society-wide symposium at the annual Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB) conference in Atlanta, Georgia, January 4, 2025. Our symposium, Cities as Natural Experiments: Eco-Evolutionary Responses to Urbanization, aims to bring together diverse researchers from across the world to elevate research that (1) explicitly links trait and environmental variation from an eco-evolutionary perspective, and (2) apply comparative approaches to understand variation in urban evolutionary responses.
Urbanization has rapidly altered the environment in unprecedented ways, and urban organisms are forced to rapidly respond to a multitude of novel selection pressures. By studying species within urban landscapes, we can identify the genetic, phenotypic, and ecological traits conferring urban survival and predict which species are likely to be tolerant of urban environments. Cities, with their drastic yet globally replicated environmental modifications, also offer unique opportunities to interrogate fundamental biological processes as the “natural experiment” of urbanization unfolds on contemporary timescales. Focused hypotheses and robust experimental designs can harness the power of cities as replicated natural experiments. However, isolating specific selective agents related to genetic, phenotypic, and ecological change is inherently difficult due to the multivariate and heterogeneous nature of urban landscapes across time and space. Increasing collaboration and consistency in research designs that directly connect environmental and phenotypic variation across systems could unlock potential in the field of urban evolutionary biology to elucidate the mechanisms of adaptive and convergent evolution.
Our symposium will be held on January 4, 2025 during the annual SICB meeting (January 3-7), and features researchers working on diverse organisms, from birds to planthopper insects. In addition to our current list of speakers, we are inviting others to participate in the symposium as part of complementary poster and presentation sessions. Participants in these sessions will also be invited to contribute to the special issue of Integrative and Comparative Biology that we are organizing following the conference. Participants who contribute to the special issue will have their conference registration reimbursed by the society.
To submit your abstract to be a part of our symposium, please submit your abstract by August 28 at 11:59 PM HST at the abstract submission site: https://www.xcdsystem.com/sicb/abstract/abstract.cfm
Please indicate that your abstract belongs to the symposium (invited speakers) or would like to be considered as a complementary presentation to our symposium when you submit your abstract.
In addition to the talks and posters, we are also organizing an urban wildlife photography exhibition, a workshop on best practices for urban fieldwork, and a bioblitz event in Atlanta! Check back for more details on these exciting activities! Hope to see you in Atlanta in January!