More Like this

1. The Complexity of Urban Eco-evolutionary Dynamics

   https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biaa079  

   Alberti, Marina; Palkovacs, Eric P; Roches, Simone Des; Meester, Luc De; Brans, Kristien I; Govaert, Lynn; Grimm, Nancy B; Harris, Nyeema C; Hendry, Andrew P; Schell, Christopher J; et al (August 2020, BioScience)

   null (Ed.)

   Abstract Urbanization is changing Earth's ecosystems by altering the interactions and feedbacks between the fundamental ecological and evolutionary processes that maintain life. Humans in cities alter the eco-evolutionary play by simultaneously changing both the actors and the stage on which the eco-evolutionary play takes place. Urbanization modifies land surfaces, microclimates, habitat connectivity, ecological networks, food webs, species diversity, and species composition. These environmental changes can lead to changes in phenotypic, genetic, and cultural makeup of wild populations that have important consequences for ecosystem function and the essential services that nature provides to human society, such as nutrient cycling, pollination, seed dispersal, food production, and water and air purification. Understanding and monitoring urbanization-induced evolutionary changes is important to inform strategies to achieve sustainability. In the present article, we propose that understanding these dynamics requires rigorous characterization of urbanizing regions as rapidly evolving, tightly coupled human–natural systems. We explore how the emergent properties of urbanization affect eco-evolutionary dynamics across space and time. We identify five key urban drivers of change—habitat modification, connectivity, heterogeneity, novel disturbances, and biotic interactions—and highlight the direct consequences of urbanization-driven eco-evolutionary change for nature's contributions to people. Then, we explore five emerging complexities—landscape complexity, urban discontinuities, socio-ecological heterogeneity, cross-scale interactions, legacies and time lags—that need to be tackled in future research. We propose that the evolving metacommunity concept provides a powerful framework to study urban eco-evolutionary dynamics. 

   more » « less
2. How do urban trees vary across the US ? It depends on where and how you look

   https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.2777  

   Mejía, Gisselle A; Groffman, Peter M; Avolio, Meghan L; Bratt, Anika R; Engebretson, Jesse M; Grijseels, Noortje; Hall, Sharon J; Hobbie, Sarah E; Lerman, Susannah B; Litvak, Elizaveta; et al (June 2024, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment)

   Urban forests provide ecosystem services important for regulating climate, conserving biodiversity, and maintaining human well‐being. However, these forests vary in composition and physiological traits due to their unique biophysical and social contexts. This variation complicates assessing the functions and services of different urban forests. To compare the characteristics of the urban forest, we sampled the species composition and two externally sourced traits (drought tolerance and water‐use capacity) of tree and shrub species in residential yards, unmanaged areas, and natural reference ecosystems within six cities across the contiguous US. As compared to natural and unmanaged forests, residential yards had markedly higher tree and shrub species richness, were composed primarily of introduced species, and had more species with low drought tolerance. The divergence between natural and human‐managed areas was most dramatic in arid climates. Our findings suggest that the answer to the question of “what is an urban forest” strongly depends on where you look within and between cities. 

   more » « less
3. Terrestrial isopods in urban environments: an overview

   https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.801.29580  

   Szlavecz, Katalin; Vilisics, Ferenc; Tóth, Zsolt; Hornung, Elisabeth (December 2018, ZooKeys)

   In an increasingly urbanized world scientific research has shifted towards the understanding of cities as unique ecosystems. Urban land use change results in rapid and drastic changes in physical and biological properties, including that of biodiversity and community composition. Soil biodiversity research often lags behind the more charismatic groups such as vertebrates and plants. This paper attempts to fill this gap and provides an overview on urban isopod research. First, a brief overview on urban land use change is given, specifically on the major alterations on surface soils. Historical studies on urban isopods is summarized, followed by the status of current knowledge on diversity, distribution, and function of urban isopod species and communities. A review of more than 100 publications revealed that worldwide 50 cities and towns have some record of terrestrial isopod species, but only a few of those are city-scale explorations of urban fauna. A total of 110 isopod species has been recorded although the majority of them only once. The ten most frequently occurring isopods are widely distributed synanthropic species. Knowledge gaps and future research needs call for a better global dataset, long term monitoring of urban populations, multi-scale analyses of landscape properties as potential drivers of isopod diversity, and molecular studies to detect evolutionary changes. 

   more » « less
4. Sensitivity of Tropical Insectivorous Birds to the Anthropocene: A Review of Multiple Mechanisms and Conservation Implications

   https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2021.662873  

   Sherry, Thomas W (May 2021, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution)

   Epigraph: “The house is burning. We do not need a thermometer. We need a fire hose.” (P. 102, Janzen and Hallwachs,2019). Insectivorous birds are declining widely, and for diverse reasons. Tropical insectivorous birds, more than 60% of all tropical birds, are particularly sensitive to human disturbances including habitat loss and fragmentation, intensive agriculture and pesticide use, and climate change; and the mechanisms are incompletely understood. This review addresses multiple, complementary and sometimes synergistic explanations for tropical insectivore declines, by categorizing explanations into ultimate vs. proximate, and direct versus indirect. Ultimate explanations are diverse human Anthropocene activities and the evolutionary history of these birds. This evolutionary history, synthesized by the Biotic Challenge Hypothesis (BCH), explains tropical insectivorous birds' vulnerabilities to many proximate threats as a function of both these birds' evolutionary feeding specialization and poor dispersal capacity. These traits were favored evolutionarily by both the diversity of insectivorous clades competing intensely for prey and co-evolution with arthropods over long evolutionary time periods. More proximate, ecological threats include bottom-up forces like declining insect populations, top-down forces like meso-predator increases, plus the Anthropocene activities underlying these factors, especially habitat loss and fragmentation, agricultural intensification, and climate change. All these conditions peak in the lowland, mainland Neotropics, where insectivorous bird declines have been repeatedly documented, but also occur in other tropical locales and continents. This multiplicity of interacting evolutionary and ecological factors informs conservation implications and recommendations for tropical insectivorous birds: (1) Why they are so sensitive to global change phenomena is no longer enigmatic, (2) distinguishing ultimate versus proximate stressors matters, (3) evolutionary life-histories predispose these birds to be particularly sensitive to the Anthropocene, (4) tropical regions and continents vary with respect to these birds' ecological sensitivity, (5) biodiversity concepts need stronger incorporation of species' evolutionary histories, (6) protecting these birds will require more, larger reserves for multiple reasons, and (7) these birds have greater value than generally recognized. 

   more » « less
5. A trait-based conceptual framework to examine urban biodiversity, socio-ecological filters, and ecosystem services linkages

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s42949-022-00077-7  

   Grilo, Filipa; McPhearson, Timon; Santos-Reis, Margarida; Branquinho, Cristina (December 2022, npj Urban Sustainability)

   Abstract Maximizing the functional performance of urban green infrastructure is important to deliver critical ecosystem services that support human well-being. However, urban ecosystems are impacted by social and ecological filters that affect biodiversity, shaping how species’ traits are functionally expressed, thus affecting ecosystem services supply. Our Social–Ecological Traits Framework addresses the impacts of socio-ecological systems on the phenotypic expression of traits and ecosystem services delivery. This functional approach to examining the supply of ecosystem services can improve the incorporation of biodiversity knowledge in urban planning decisions for maximizing the effectiveness of ecosystem services as nature-based solutions under multiple types of social and environmental change. 

   more » « less