Evolution in an Urbanizing World
In ecological studies, ants are commonly used as bio-indicators because they are able to respond to rapid changes in their environments. This also makes them a great system to use in urban studies given the rapid changes that urbanization poses on ecosystems. However, there studies that look at the evolutionary patterns of ants in response... 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 →
Evidence for evolution in urban systems is increasing, but a key outstanding question in the field of urban ecology and eco-evolutionary dynamics is whether the ability of individuals to adapt to environmental conditions (plasticity) also evolves and how this process can happen. In a new paper, Sarah Diamond and her collaborators looked to examine the... Continue Reading →
What consequences does the urban heat island effect have for animals that live in cities? How might increased heat interact with other environmental factors, such as water availability, to affect survival or fitness of animals exposed to these higher temperatures? Dustin Johnson, a masters student in Zach Stahlschmidt’s lab at University of the Pacific chose... Continue Reading →
In their recent contribution to the special issue on urban evolution in Proceedings B, Sarah Diamond and team share their exciting results on detecting parallel and non-parallel physiological responses to the urban heat island in acorn ants (paper here). This is the first of several posts to come on the recent special issue on urban evolution... Continue Reading →
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