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Deviche P, Sweazea K, Angelier F. Past and future: Urbanization and the avian endocrine system. Gen Comp Endocrinol 2023; 332:114159. [PMID: 36368439 DOI: 10.1016/j.ygcen.2022.114159] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/10/2022] [Revised: 10/18/2022] [Accepted: 11/02/2022] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
Urban environments are evolutionarily novel and differ from natural environments in many respects including food and/or water availability, predation, noise, light, air quality, pathogens, biodiversity, and temperature. The success of organisms in urban environments requires physiological plasticity and adjustments that have been described extensively, including in birds residing in geographically and climatically diverse regions. These studies have revealed a few relatively consistent differences between urban and non-urban conspecifics. For example, seasonally breeding urban birds often develop their reproductive system earlier than non-urban birds, perhaps in response to more abundant trophic resources. In most instances, however, analyses of existing data indicate no general pattern distinguishing urban and non-urban birds. It is, for instance, often hypothesized that urban environments are stressful, yet the activity of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis does not differ consistently between urban and non-urban birds. A similar conclusion is reached by comparing blood indices of metabolism. The origin of these disparities remains poorly understood, partly because many studies are correlative rather than aiming at establishing causality, which effectively limits our ability to formulate specific hypotheses regarding the impacts of urbanization on wildlife. We suggest that future research will benefit from prioritizing mechanistic approaches to identify environmental factors that shape the phenotypic responses of organisms to urbanization and the neuroendocrine and metabolic bases of these responses. Further, it will be critical to elucidate whether factors affect these responses (a) cumulatively or synergistically; and (b) differentially as a function of age, sex, reproductive status, season, and mobility within the urban environment. Research to date has used various taxa that differ greatly not only phylogenetically, but also with regard to ecological requirements, social systems, propensity to consume anthropogenic food, and behavioral responses to human presence. Researchers may instead benefit from standardizing approaches to examine a small number of representative models with wide geographic distribution and that occupy diverse urban ecosystems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pierre Deviche
- School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.
| | - Karen Sweazea
- College of Health Solutions, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ, USA
| | - Frederic Angelier
- Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, UMR7372, CNRS - La Rochelle Universite, Villiers en Bois, France
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Avilés-Rodríguez KJ, Winchell KM, De León LF, Revell LJ. Phenotypic response to a major hurricane in Anolis lizards in urban and forest habitats. Biol J Linn Soc Lond 2021. [DOI: 10.1093/biolinnean/blab011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022]
Abstract
Abstract
Little is known about the synergistic impacts of urbanization and hurricanes on synanthropes. We compared morphological traits of the lizard Anolis cristatellus on Puerto Rico sampled before the 2017 category 5 Hurricane Maria and 4 and 11 months after the hurricane. We measured limb lengths, toepad size and the number of subdigital scales, termed lamellae, that facilitate adhesion. We hypothesized that the hurricane should have selected for longer limbs and larger toepads with more lamellae, which are traits that other research has suggested to increase clinging performance. Given prior work demonstrating that urban lizards of this species tend to share this phenotype, we also predicted increased phenotypic overlap between post-hurricane urban–forest pairs. Instead, we found that forest and urban populations alike had smaller body sizes, along with a small size-adjusted decrease in most traits, at 4 months after the hurricane event. Many traits returned to prehurricane values by 11 months post-hurricane. Toe morphology differed in the response to the hurricane between urban and forest populations, with significantly decreased trait values in forest but not in urban populations. This difference could be attributable to the different biomechanical demands of adhesion to anthropogenic substrates compared with natural substrates during intense winds. Overall, more research will be required to understand the impacts of hurricanes on urban species and whether differential natural selection can result.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Luis F De León
- Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Liam J Revell
- Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA, USA
- Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción, Concepción, Chile
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Carlen E, Munshi‐South J. Widespread genetic connectivity of feral pigeons across the Northeastern megacity. Evol Appl 2021; 14:150-162. [PMID: 33519962 PMCID: PMC7819573 DOI: 10.1111/eva.12972] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/05/2020] [Revised: 03/25/2020] [Accepted: 03/26/2020] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
Urbanization may restrict, facilitate, or have no effect on gene flow, depending on the organism and extent of urbanization. In human commensals, with high dispersal ability, urbanization can facilitate gene flow by providing continuous suitable habitat across a wide range. Additionally, suburban or rural areas with lower human population density may act as a barrier to gene flow for these human commensals. Spatial population genetic approaches provide a means to understand genetic connectivity across geographically expansive areas that encompass multiple metropolitan areas. Here, we examined the spatial genetic patterns of feral pigeons (Columba livia) living in cities in the eastern United States. We focused our sampling on the Northeastern megacity, which is a region covering six large cities (Boston, Providence, New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, DC). We performed ddRAD-Seqon 473 samples, recovered 35,200 SNPs, and then used multiple evolutionary clustering analyses to investigate population structuring. These analyses revealed that pigeons formed two genetic clusters-a northern cluster containing samples from Boston and Providence and a southern cluster containing all other samples. This substructuring is possibly due to reduced urbanization across coastal Connecticut that separates Boston and Providence from New York and mid-Atlantic cities. We found that pairs of pigeons within 25 km are highly related (Mantel r = 0.217, p = .001) and that beyond 50 km, pigeons are no more related than they would be at random. Our analysis detected higher-than-expected gene flow under an isolation by distance model within each city. We conclude that the extreme urbanization characteristic of the Northeastern megacity is likely facilitating gene flow in feral pigeons.
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Ziege M, Theodorou P, Jüngling H, Merker S, Plath M, Streit B, Lerp H. Population genetics of the European rabbit along a rural-to-urban gradient. Sci Rep 2020; 10:2448. [PMID: 32051442 PMCID: PMC7015939 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-57962-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/21/2018] [Accepted: 12/24/2019] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
The European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is declining in large parts of Europe but populations in some German cities remained so far unaffected by this decline. The question arises of how urbanization affects patterns of population genetic variation and differentiation in German rabbit populations, as urban habitat fragmentation may result in altered meta-population dynamics. To address this question, we used microsatellite markers to genotype rabbit populations occurring along a rural-to-urban gradient in and around the city of Frankfurt, Germany. We found no effect of urbanization on allelic richness. However, the observed heterozygosity was significantly higher in urban than rural populations and also the inbreeding coefficients were lower, most likely reflecting the small population sizes and possibly on-going loss of genetic diversity in structurally impoverished rural areas. Global FST and G'ST-values suggest moderate but significant differentiation between populations. Multiple matrix regression with randomization ascribed this differentiation to isolation-by-environment rather than isolation-by-distance. Analyses of migration rates revealed asymmetrical gene flow, which was higher from rural into urban populations than vice versa and may again reflect intensified agricultural land-use practices in rural areas. We discuss that populations inhabiting urban areas will likely play an important role in the future distribution of European rabbits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Madlen Ziege
- University of Potsdam, Plant Ecology and Nature Conservation, Am Mühlenberg 3, D-14476, Potsdam, Golm, Germany.
- University of Frankfurt, Department of Ecology & Evolution, Max-von-Laue-Str. 13, D-60438, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
| | - Panagiotis Theodorou
- Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Institute of Biology, General Zoology, Hoher Weg 8, D-06120, Halle, Saale, Germany
| | - Hannah Jüngling
- Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung, Clamecystraße 12, D-63571, Gelnhausen, Germany
| | - Stefan Merker
- State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart, Department of Zoology, Rosenstein 1, D-70191, Stuttgart, Germany
| | - Martin Plath
- Northwest A&F University, College of Animal Science and Technology, Yangling, Shaanxi, 712100, China
| | - Bruno Streit
- University of Frankfurt, Department of Ecology & Evolution, Max-von-Laue-Str. 13, D-60438, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| | - Hannes Lerp
- Museum Wiesbaden, Natural History Collections, Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 2, D-65185, Wiesbaden, Germany
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Miles LS, Rivkin LR, Johnson MTJ, Munshi‐South J, Verrelli BC. Gene flow and genetic drift in urban environments. Mol Ecol 2019; 28:4138-4151. [DOI: 10.1111/mec.15221] [Citation(s) in RCA: 88] [Impact Index Per Article: 17.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/15/2019] [Revised: 08/02/2019] [Accepted: 08/13/2019] [Indexed: 01/02/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Lindsay S. Miles
- Integrative Life Sciences Doctoral Program Virginia Commonwealth University Richmond VA USA
- Department of Biology University of Toronto Mississauga Mississauga ON Canada
| | - L. Ruth Rivkin
- Department of Biology University of Toronto Mississauga Mississauga ON Canada
- Centre for Urban Environments University of Toronto Mississauga Mississauga ON Canada
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of Toronto Toronto ON Canada
| | - Marc T. J. Johnson
- Department of Biology University of Toronto Mississauga Mississauga ON Canada
- Centre for Urban Environments University of Toronto Mississauga Mississauga ON Canada
| | - Jason Munshi‐South
- Louis Calder Center—Biological Field Station Fordham University Armonk NY USA
| | - Brian C. Verrelli
- Center for Life Sciences Education Virginia Commonwealth University Richmond VA USA
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Abstract
Our planet is an increasingly urbanized landscape, with over half of the human population residing in cities. Despite advances in urban ecology, we do not adequately understand how urbanization affects the evolution of organisms, nor how this evolution may affect ecosystems and human health. Here, we review evidence for the effects of urbanization on the evolution of microbes, plants, and animals that inhabit cities. Urbanization affects adaptive and nonadaptive evolutionary processes that shape the genetic diversity within and between populations. Rapid adaptation has facilitated the success of some native species in urban areas, but it has also allowed human pests and disease to spread more rapidly. The nascent field of urban evolution brings together efforts to understand evolution in response to environmental change while developing new hypotheses concerning adaptation to urban infrastructure and human socioeconomic activity. The next generation of research on urban evolution will provide critical insight into the importance of evolution for sustainable interactions between humans and our city environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marc T J Johnson
- Department of Biology and Center for Urban Environments, University of Toronto Mississauga, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. .,Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto Mississauga, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
| | - Jason Munshi-South
- Department of Biological Sciences and Louis Calder Center, Fordham University, Armonk, NY, USA.
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Johnson CD, Evans D, Jones D. Birds and Roads: Reduced Transit for Smaller Species over Roads within an Urban Environment. Front Ecol Evol 2017. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2017.00036] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
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