Many people imagine a pristine desert in the Southwest US, with the iconic saguaro cacti in the foreground, mountains in the background. In recent years, these deserts have become highly urbanized. Thankfully, there are protections in place for these majestic, century-old cacti. If you plan to build where there is a saguaro, you have to... Continue Reading →
Urbanization Can Influence Plant-Herbivore Interactions
Recently, LITC contributor Sophie Brietbart and myself published a review in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution as part of a special issue on Arthropod Interactions and Responses to Disturbance in a Changing World. Changes to the biotic and abiotic environment via urbanization present challenges not only to herbivorous arthropods, but also their host plants and... Continue Reading →
Evolution 2019: Human Land Use Impacts Gene Flow in the Biodiversity Hotspot Cape Floristic Region, South Africa
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 →
Evolution 2019: Urban Plant Evolution: A Case Study with Capsella bursa-pastoris in New York City
The percent of impervious surface increases as you move from rural to urban areas, with city centers having the highest percent impervious surface. In a Megapolis like New York CIty, there is a gradient from the core of the city to less urban areas. There is typically less available habitat for plants to grow in... Continue Reading →
Getting “Back on Track” with Common Milkweed
Sophie Breitbart, PhD student at University of Toronto Mississauga, tells us about her experience in the field working on milkweed. I'm sitting in the railway station Got a ticket to my destination... -Simon and Garfunkel, “Homeward Bound” Who would’ve thought that a young Paul Simon could have so much in common with a perennial herb... Continue Reading →