1932

Abstract

Around the world the development and growth of cities and towns are having a significant impact on local and global biodiversity. There is growing interest in the adaptation of nonhuman organisms to urban environments, and we distinguish between the concepts of adaptation and adaptedness. Most of these studies have focused on animals, especially birds. Commonly recorded responses to urban environments include regulatory and acclimatory responses involving changes in behavior, communication, and physiology. Developmental responses tend to be morphological in nature but can also involve cultural learning. There is growing evidence of microevolutionary changes associated with adaptive responses to urban environments. This review also highlights the urgent need to refine the terminology currently used to describe the adaptation of organisms to urban environments in order to improve scientific understanding and more effectively identify and communicate the actions required to create biodiversity- and adaptation-friendly cities and towns for the future.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-112414-054258
2015-12-04
2024-11-06
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/ecolsys/46/1/annurev-ecolsys-112414-054258.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-112414-054258&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

Literature Cited

  1. Alberti M. 2015. Eco-evolutionary dynamics in an urbanizing planet. Trends Ecol. Evol. 30:2114–26 [Google Scholar]
  2. Aronson MFJ, La Sorte FA, Nilon CH, Katti M, Goddard MA. et al. 2014. A global analysis of the impacts of urbanization on bird and plant diversity reveals key anthropogenic drivers. Proc. R. Soc. B 281:20133330 [Google Scholar]
  3. Ashley MV, Willson MF, Pergams ORW, O'Dowd DJ, Gende SM, Brown JS. 2003. Evolutionarily enlightened management. Biol. Conserv. 111:2115–23 [Google Scholar]
  4. Atwell J, Cardoso GC, Whittaker DJ, Campbell-Nelson S, Robertson KW, Ketterson ED. 2012. Boldness behavior and stress physiology in a novel urban environment suggest rapid correlated evolutionary adaptation. Behav. Ecol. 23:5960–69 [Google Scholar]
  5. Badyaev AV, Young RL, Oh KP, Addison C. 2008. Evolution on a local scale: developmental, functional, and genetic bases of divergence in bill form and associated changes in song structure between adjacent habitats. Evolution 62:1951–64 [Google Scholar]
  6. Bonier F. 2012. Hormones in the city: endocrine ecology of urban birds. Horm. Behav. 61:5763–72 [Google Scholar]
  7. Bonier F, Martin PR, Sheldon KS, Jensen JP, Foltz SL, Wingfield JC. 2006. Sex-specific consequences of life in the city. Behav. Ecol. 18:1121–29 [Google Scholar]
  8. Carrete M, Tella JL. 2010. Individual consistency in flight initiation distances in burrowing owls: a new hypothesis on disturbance-induced habitat selection. Biol. Lett. 6:167–70 [Google Scholar]
  9. Chamberlain DE, Cannon AR, Toms MP, Leech DI, Hatchwell BJ, Gaston KJ. 2009. Avian productivity in urban landscapes: a review and meta-analysis. Ibis 151:1–18 [Google Scholar]
  10. Chan AAYH, Blumstein DT. 2011. Attention, noise, and implications for wildlife conservation and management. Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci. 131:1–21–7 [Google Scholar]
  11. Cheptou P, Carrue O, Rouifed S, Cantarel A. 2008. Rapid evolution of seed dispersal in an urban environment in the weed Crepis sancta. PNAS 105:3796–99 [Google Scholar]
  12. Cook LM, Grant BS, Saccheri IJ, Mallet J. 2012. Selective bird predation on the peppered moth: the last experiment of Michael Majerus. Biol. Lett. 8:609–12 [Google Scholar]
  13. Cowles H. 1904. The work of the year 1903 in ecology. Science 19:879–85 [Google Scholar]
  14. Delcourt HR, Delcourt PA. 1983. Quaternary landscape ecology: relevant scales in space and time. Landsc. Ecol. 2:23–44 [Google Scholar]
  15. Dobson AP, Bradshaw AD, Baker AJM. 1997. Hope for the future: restoration ecology and conservation biology. Science 277:515–22 [Google Scholar]
  16. Dobzhansky T. 1970. Genetics of the Evolutionary Process New York: Columbia Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  17. Donihue CM, Lambert MR. 2015. Adaptive evolution in urban ecosystems. Ambio 44:194–203 [Google Scholar]
  18. Dorn NJ, Cook MI, Herring G, Boyle RA, Nelson J, Gawlik DE. 2011. Aquatic prey switching and urban foraging by the White Ibis Eudocimus albus are determined by wetland hydrological conditions. Ibis 153:323–35 [Google Scholar]
  19. Dwire KA, Kauffman JB. 2003. Fire and riparian ecosystems in landscapes of the western USA. For. Ecol. Manag. 178:61–74 [Google Scholar]
  20. Evans KL. 2010. Individual species and urbanisation. Urban Ecology KJ Gaston 53–87 Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  21. Evans KL, Gaston KJ, Frantz AC, Simeoni M, Sharp SP. et al. 2009. Independent colonization of multiple urban centres by a formerly forest specialist bird species. Proc. R. Soc. B 276:16662403–10 [Google Scholar]
  22. Evans KL, Hatchwell BJ, Parnell M, Gaston KJ. 2010. A conceptual framework for the colonisation of urban areas: the blackbird Turdus merula as a case study. Biol. Rev 85:3643–67 [Google Scholar]
  23. Felson AJ, Bradford MA, Terway TM. 2013. Promoting Earth stewardship through urban design experiments. Front. Ecol. Environ. 11:7362–67 [Google Scholar]
  24. Ferguson SD, Leger EA, Li J, Nowak RS. 2015. Natural selection favors root investment in native grasses during restoration of invaded fields. J. Arid Environ. 116:11–17 [Google Scholar]
  25. Fernández-Juricic E, Jokimäki J. 2001. A habitat island approach to conserving birds in urban landscapes: case studies from southern and northern Europe. Biodivers. Conserv. 10:2023–43 [Google Scholar]
  26. Fey K, Vuorisalo T, Lehikoinen A, Selonen V. 2015. Urbanisation of the wood pigeon (Columba palumbus) in Finland. Landsc. Urban Plan 134:188–94 [Google Scholar]
  27. Fischer JD, Schneider SC, Ahlers AA, Miller JR. 2015. Categorizing wildlife responses to urbanization and conservation implications of terminology. Conserv. Biol. 29:41246–48 [Google Scholar]
  28. Fokidis HB, Orchinik M, Deviche P. 2009. Corticosterone and corticosteroid binding globulin in birds: relation to urbanization in a desert city. Gen. Comp. Endocrinol. 160:3259–70 [Google Scholar]
  29. Fragkias M, Güneralp B, Seto KC, Goodness J. 2013. A synthesis of global urbanization projections. Urbanization, Biodiversity, and Ecosystem Services: Challenges and Opportunities T Elmqvist, M Fragkias, J Goodness, B Güneralp, PJ Marcotullio , et al., pp. 409–35 Dordrecht, Neth.: Springer [Google Scholar]
  30. Fuller RA, Warren PH, Gaston KJ. 2007. Daytime noise predicts nocturnal singing in urban robins. Biol. Lett. 3:368–70 [Google Scholar]
  31. Futuyma DJ. 2013. Evolution Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Assoc. [Google Scholar]
  32. Garroway CJ, Sheldon BC. 2013. Urban behavioural adaptation. Mol. Ecol. 22:133430–32 [Google Scholar]
  33. Gaston KJ, Davies TW, Bennie J, Hopkins J. 2012. Reducing the ecological consequences of night-time light pollution: options and developments. J. Appl. Ecol. 49:61256–66 [Google Scholar]
  34. Germaine SS, Rosenstock SS, Schweinsburg RE, Richardson WS. 1998. Relationships among breeding birds, habitat, and residential development in greater Tucson, Arizona. Ecol. Appl. 8:3680–91 [Google Scholar]
  35. Gil D, Brumm H. 2014. Avian Urban Ecology: Behavioural and Physiological Adaptations Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  36. Grant BW, Middendorf G, Colgan MJ, Ahmad H, Vogel MB. 2011. Ecology of urban amphibians and reptiles: urbanophiles, urbanophobes, and the urbanoblivious. Urban Ecology: Patterns, Processes and Applications J Niemelä, JH Breuste, T Elmqvist, G Guntenspergen, P James, NE McIntyre 167–78 Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  37. Grimm NB, Faeth SH, Golubiewski NE, Redman CL, Wu J. et al. 2008. Global change and the ecology of cities. Science 319:5864756–60 [Google Scholar]
  38. Hahs AK, McDonnell MJ, Breuste JH. 2009a. Comparative ecology of cities and towns: past, present and future. Ecology of Cities and Towns: A Comparative Approach MJ McDonnell, AK Hahs, JH Breuste 574–96 New York: Cambridge Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  39. Hahs AK, McDonnell MJ, McCarthy MA, Vesk PA, Corlett RT. et al. 2009b. A global synthesis of plant extinction rates in urban areas. Ecol. Lett. 12:1165–73 [Google Scholar]
  40. Hamer AJ, McDonnell MJ. 2010. The response of herpetofauna to urbanization: inferring patterns of persistence from wildlife databases. Austral Ecol. 35:568–80 [Google Scholar]
  41. Hobbs RJ, Cramer VA. 2008. Restoration ecology: interventionist approaches for restoring and maintaining ecosystem function in the face of rapid environmental change. Annu. Rev. Environ. Resour. 33:139–61 [Google Scholar]
  42. Hoffmann AA, Sgrò CM. 2011. Climate change and evolutionary adaptation. Nature 470:479–85 [Google Scholar]
  43. Hu Y, Cardoso GC. 2010. Which birds adjust the frequency of vocalizations in urban noise?. Anim. Behav. 79:4863–67 [Google Scholar]
  44. Jiménez G, Meléndez L, Blanco G, Laiolo P. 2013. Dampened behavioral responses mediate birds' association with humans. Biol. Conserv. 159:477–83 [Google Scholar]
  45. Kamdem C, Fossog BT, Simard F, Etouna J, Ndo C. et al. 2012. Anthropogenic habitat disturbance and ecological divergence between incipient species of the malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae. PLOS ONE 7:6e39453 [Google Scholar]
  46. Kearney MR, Briscoe NJ, Karoly J, Porter WP, Norgate M, Sunnucks P. 2010. Early emergence in a butterfly causally linked to anthropogenic warming. Biol. Lett. 6:674–77 [Google Scholar]
  47. Kettlewell HBD. 1959. Darwin's missing evidence. Sci. Am. 200:48–53 [Google Scholar]
  48. Kinzig A, Grove JM. 2001. Urban-suburban ecology. Encyclopedia of Biodiversity SA Levin 733–45 San Diego, CA: Academic [Google Scholar]
  49. Kotze J, Venn S, Niemelä J, Spence J. 2011. Effects of urbanization on the ecology and evolution of arthropods. Urban Ecology: Patterns, Processes, and Applications J Niemelä, JH Breuste, T Elmqvist, G Guntenspergen, P James, NE McIntyre 159–66 Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  50. Kowarik I. 2011. Novel urban ecosystems, biodiversity, and conservation. Environ. Pollut. 159:8–91974–83 [Google Scholar]
  51. Lepczyk CA, Warren PS. 2012. Beyond the gradient: insights from new work in the avian ecology of urbanizing lands. Urban Bird Ecology and Conservation CA Lepczyk, PS Warren 1–6 Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press [Google Scholar]
  52. Lowry H, Lill A, Wong BBM. 2013. Behavioural responses of wildlife to urban environments. Biol. Rev. 88:3537–49 [Google Scholar]
  53. Luck GW, Smallbone LT. 2010. Species diversity and urbanisation: patterns, drivers and implications. Urban Ecology KJ Gaston 88–119 Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  54. MacGregor-Fors I. 2011. Misconceptions or misunderstandings? On the standardization of basic terms and definitions in urban ecology. Landsc. Urban Plan. 100:4347–49 [Google Scholar]
  55. Manel S, Holderegger R. 2013. Ten years of landscape genetics. Trends Ecol. Evol. 28:10614–21 [Google Scholar]
  56. Martin LB, Boruta M. 2014. The impacts of urbanization on avian disease transmission and emergence. See Gil & Brumm 2014 116–28
  57. Marzluff JM. 2012. Urban evolutionary ecology. Urban Bird Ecology and Conservation CA Lepczyk, PS Warren 287–308 Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press [Google Scholar]
  58. McDonald RI, Forman RTT, Kareiva P. 2010. Open space loss and land inequality in United States' cities, 1990–2000. PLOS ONE 5:3e9509 [Google Scholar]
  59. McDonald RI, Kareiva P, Forman RTT. 2008. The implications of current and future urbanization for global protected areas and biodiversity conservation. Biol. Conserv. 141:61695–703 [Google Scholar]
  60. McDonnell MJ, Hahs AK. 2008. The use of gradient analysis studies in advancing our understanding of the ecology of urbanizing landscapes: current status and future directions. Landsc. Ecol. 23:101143–55 [Google Scholar]
  61. McDonnell MJ, Hahs AK. 2013. The future of urban biodiversity research: moving beyond the “low-hanging fruit.”. Urban Ecosyst 16:3397–409 [Google Scholar]
  62. McIntosh RP. 1985. The Background of Ecology: Concept and Theory New York: Cambridge Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  63. McIntyre NE, Knowles-Yanez K, Hope D. 2000. Urban ecology as an interdisciplinary field: differences in the use of “urban” between the social and natural sciences. Urban Ecosyst 4:5–24 [Google Scholar]
  64. McKinney ML. 2002. Urbanization, biodiversity, and conservation. BioScience 52:10883–90 [Google Scholar]
  65. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005. Ecosystems and Human Well-Being: Biodiversity Synthesis Washington, DC: Island Press [Google Scholar]
  66. Mockford EJ, Marshall RC. 2009. Effects of urban noise on song and response behaviour in great tits. Proc. R. Soc. B 276:June2979–85 [Google Scholar]
  67. Møller AP. 2009. Successful city dwellers: a comparative study of the ecological characteristics of urban birds in the Western Palearctic. Oecologia 159:4849–58 [Google Scholar]
  68. Neil K, Wu J. 2006. Effects of urbanization on plant flowering phenology: a review. Urban Ecosyst. 9:243–57 [Google Scholar]
  69. Nelson DR, Adger WN, Brown K. 2007. Adaptation to environmental change: contributions of a resilience framework. Annu. Rev. Environ. Resour. 32:1395–419 [Google Scholar]
  70. Palumbi SR. 2001. Humans as the world's greatest evolutionary force. Science 293:55361786–90 [Google Scholar]
  71. Parris KM, Velik-lord M, North JMA. 2009. Frogs call at a higher pitch in traffic noise. Ecol. Soc. 14:125 [Google Scholar]
  72. Partecke J, Gwinner E. 2004. Increased sedentariness in European blackbirds following urbanization: a consequence of local adaptation?. Ecology 88:4882–90 [Google Scholar]
  73. Partecke J, Gwinner E, Bensch S. 2006. Is urbanisation of European blackbirds (Turdus merula) associated with genetic differentiation?. J. Ornithol 147:4549–52 [Google Scholar]
  74. Partecke J, Van't Hof T, Gwinner E. 2004. Differences in the timing of reproduction between urban and forest European blackbirds (Turdus merula): result of phenotypic flexibility or genetic differences?. Proc. R. Soc. B 271:15521995–2001 [Google Scholar]
  75. Paul MJ, Meyer JL. 2001. Streams in the urban landscape. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 32:333–65 [Google Scholar]
  76. Pickett STA, Cadenasso ML, Grove JM, Boone CG, Groffman PM. et al. 2011. Urban ecological systems: scientific foundations and a decade of progress. J. Environ. Manag. 92:3331–62 [Google Scholar]
  77. Pickett STA, Cadenasso ML, Grove JM, Nilon CH, Pouyat RV. et al. 2001. Urban ecological systems: linking terrestrial ecological, physical and socioeconomic components of metropolitan areas. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 32:127–57 [Google Scholar]
  78. Pimm SL, Jenkins CN, Abell R, Brooks TM, Gittleman JL. et al. 2014. The biodiversity of species and their rates of extinction, distribution, and protection. Science 344:61871246752 [Google Scholar]
  79. Rich C, Longcore T. 2004. Ecological Consequences of Artificial Night Lighting Covelo, CA: Island Press [Google Scholar]
  80. Ricklefs RE. 1990. Ecology New York: Freeman, 3rd ed.. [Google Scholar]
  81. Secr. Conv. Biol. Div 2012. Cities and biodiversity outlook: action and policy. Exec. Summ. Secr. Conv. Biol. Div., Montreal [Google Scholar]
  82. Seto KC, Güneralp B, Hutyra LR. 2012. Global forecasts of urban expansion to 2030 and direct impacts on biodiversity and carbon pools. PNAS 109:4016083–88 [Google Scholar]
  83. Shochat E, Stefanov WL, Whitehouse MEA, Faeth SH. 2014. Urbanization and spider diversity: influences of human modification of habitat structure and productivity. Ecol. Appl. 14:1268–80 [Google Scholar]
  84. Slabbekoorn H. 2013. Songs of the city: noise-dependent spectral plasticity in the acoustic phenotype of urban birds. Anim. Behav. 85:51089–99 [Google Scholar]
  85. Smit B, Wandel J. 2006. Adaptation, adaptive capacity and vulnerability. Glob. Environ. Change 16:3282–92 [Google Scholar]
  86. Sol D, Bacher S, Reader SM, Lefebvre L. 2008. Brain size predicts the success of mammal species introduced into novel environments. Am. Nat. 172:SupplS63–71 [Google Scholar]
  87. Sol D, Lapiedra O, González-Lagos C. 2013. Behavioural adjustments for a life in the city. Anim. Behav. 85:51101–12 [Google Scholar]
  88. Stockwell CA, Hendry AP, Kinnison MT. 2003. Contemporary evolution meets conservation biology. Trends Ecol. Evol. 18:294–101 [Google Scholar]
  89. Sukopp H. 1998. Urban ecology: scientific and practical aspects. Urban Ecology J Breuste, H Feldmann, O Uhlmann 3–16 Berlin: Springer-Verlag [Google Scholar]
  90. Theobald DM. 2004. Placing exurban land-use change in a human modification framework. Front. Ecol. Environ. 2:139–44 [Google Scholar]
  91. Thompson JN. 1998. Rapid evolution as an ecological process. Trends Ecol. Evol. 13:8329–32 [Google Scholar]
  92. Thompson K, Jones A. 1999. Human population density and prediction of local plant extinction in Britain. Conserv. Biol. 13:1185–89 [Google Scholar]
  93. Tuomainen U, Candolin U. 2011. Behavioural responses to human-induced environmental change. Biol. Rev. 86:3640–57 [Google Scholar]
  94. van der Ree R, McCarthy MA. 2005. Inferring persistence of indigenous mammals in response to urbanisation. Anim. Conserv. 8:3309–19 [Google Scholar]
  95. Venn S. 2007. Morphological responses to disturbance in wing-polymorphic carabid species (Coleoptera: Carabidae) of managed urban grasslands. Baltic J. Coleopterol. 7:151–59 [Google Scholar]
  96. Walsh CJ, Waller KA, Gehling J, MacNally R. 2007. Riverine invertebrate assemblages are degraded more by catchment urbanisation than by riparian deforestation. Freshw. Biol. 52:3574–87 [Google Scholar]
  97. Williams NSG, Hahs AK, Vesk PA. 2015. Urbanisation, plant traits and the composition of urban floras. Perspect. Plant Ecol. Evol. Syst. 17:78–86 [Google Scholar]
  98. Williams NSG, Schwartz MW, Vesk PA, McCarthy MA, Hahs AK. et al. 2009. A conceptual framework for predicting the effects of urban environments on floras. J. Ecol. 97:14–9 [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-112414-054258
Loading
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-112414-054258
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Review Article
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error