Evolution in an Urbanizing World
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 →
During Monday’s poster session at Evolution 2019, I had the chance to talk with Dr. Lindsay Miles (currently a postdoc at the University of Toronto-Mississauga and an editor of this blog) about research she conducted during her PhD at Virginia Commonwealth University. Lindsay and her fellow researchers report on how anthropogenic land use is influencing... Continue Reading →
Many of us don't think of the Galápagos as a place that is urbanized, but as we've discussed here on Life in the City previously, there is substantial human impact in the archipelago. An estimate from 2012 places the population size at 35,000 people -- about 10 times the population just 4 decades earlier. Because researchers... Continue Reading →
Kevin Aviles-Rodriguez, a contributor here at LITC, studies urban adaptation and behavior of Anolis lizards. Previously, we told you all about Kevin's research on escape behavior of urban versus forest anoles, which was Kevin's MS research. During his PhD, Kevin has been focusing more on landscape genetics and the morphological impacts of hurricane Maria in urban... Continue Reading →
Posts here on Life in the City have covered the gamut of impacts of urbanization: the urban heat island, habitat fragmentation, artificial structures, changes in species interactions, and more. One aspect of anthropogenic change we haven’t yet considered is alterations to radioecology, or the ecology of how radioactive compounds affect organisms and the environment. While... Continue Reading →
In the second of four urban anole presentations at Evolution, Emmanuel D'Agostino does a great job summarizing new research by LITC contributor Chris Thawley. Chris' post-doc research has really delved into the night-light niche and ALAN, a topic that is no stranger to this blog (check out: It’s Lit in the City, Is Artificial Light Changing Pigeon... Continue Reading →
With increased urbanization across the globe comes more invasive species. Humans accidentally bring pests with them when they travel across the world. The highly invasive Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, has been found in Wake County, North Carolina. Emily Reed, a graduate student at NC State, collected mosquito eggs from 15 sites across Wake County... Continue Reading →
Anole lizards are adapting to urbanization. Anolis cristatellus in particular has rapidly and repeatedly evolved larger toepads with more lamellae (among many other trait shifts) in urban environments across Puerto Rico when compared to nearby forest environments. But one question that has been bugging me and Travis Hagey for years is how exactly are the toepads getting... Continue Reading →
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