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Evolution 2019: Do Frogs Respond Eco-Evolutionarily to the Chernobyl Incident?
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…
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Evolution 2019: How Do Anoles Handle Artificial Light at Night?
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…
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Evolution 2019: Landscape Genetics of an Invasive Species in an Urban-Rural Landscape
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,…
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Evolution 2019: Urban Lizards Have Wider and Longer Toepads
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…
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Evolution 2019: Evolution Takes Flight: Population Genetics of Feral Pigeons (Columba livia) in the Northeastern United States
As you may have guessed by now, urbanization changes the natural landscape and this can have consequences for the organisms that live in them. Feral pigeons, which had been domesticated thousands of years ago and transported globally by humans, are…
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Evolution 2019: Adaptation to Coastal Stressors in Oyster Larvae
When people think of the effects of cities on wildlife, changes on land often first come to mind. But, urban areas also have major impacts on aquatic life, especially near sewage treatment plants. These sewage plants dump billions of liters…
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Evolution 2019: Urbanization Affects Gene Flow and Genetic Drift
As of 2008, more people live in urban than in rural areas, and human populations in cities will only continue to increase. One goal of urban evolution research is to determine how the expansion of cities impacts genetic diversity of…
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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…
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