A global horizon scan for urban evolutionary ecology

Verrelli, Brian C.; Alberti, Marina; Roches, Simone Des; Harris, Nyeema C.; Hendry, Andrew P.; Johnson, Marc T. J.; Savage, Amy M.; Charmantier, Anne; Gotanda, Kiyoko M.; Govaert, Lynn; Miles, Lindsay S.; Rivkin, L. Ruth; Winchell, Kristin M.; Brans, Kristien I.; Correa, Cristián; Diamond, Sarah E.; Fitzhugh, Ben; Grimm, Nancy B.; Hughes, Sara; Marzluff, John M.; Munshi‐South, Jason; Rojas, Carolina; Santangelo, James S.; Schell, Christopher J.; Schweitzer, Jennifer A.; Szulkin, Marta; Urban, Mark C.; Zhou, Yuyu; Ziter, Carly

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2022.07.012

Cited by 35 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 90 publications

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“…exurbanization, sub-urbanization) influences the fate of most non-urban areas, far beyond the sole core cities (see the concept of "extended urbanization"; Tzaninis et al, 2021). Due to this matter of fact as well as the obviously radical environmental changes, hence strong selective pressures, that urbanization puts on biodiversity, urban evolutionary ecology has recently received an important renewal of interest (Alberti, 2015;Rivkin et al, 2018;Alberti et al, 2020;Verrelli et al, 2022). However, it may be that some kind of academic European and North American leadership in the field induces a Northern hemisphere-biased perception (e.g., Parsons et al, 2017Parsons et al, , 2020Alberti et al, 2020;see Box 2 in Verrelli et al, 2022 showing strong under-representation of Global South researchers in urban evolutionary ecology; see Gandy, 2021 for an emphasis on urban health ecology), and so a very partial view of what animal-human interactions within cities may include.…”

Section: Cities As the Most Important Human Habitatmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As such, cities may be particularly favorable for human pathogen evolution simply due to higher number of infections, hence increased genetic change opportunities. Unfortunately, little is known about these aspects (Verrelli et al, 2022).…”

Section: Cities As Incubators Of Evolutionary Noveltiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, some zoonoses tend to urbanize (e.g., leptospirosis: Lau et al, 2010;Blasdel et al, 2019;scrub typhus: Park et al, 2015), sometimes following the abundance of a few but highly competent reservoir species that are well-adapted to deeply human-modified habitats (Morand et al, 2019;Gibb et al, 2020). We still do not know much about evolutionary fate of zoonotic systems under urban selective regimes (Verrelli et al, 2022), and it may be cautious and wise to keep aware that one cannot really predict what may emerge from urban-driven novelties in terms of parasite diversity, hosts/parasite associations and, ultimately, zoonotic emergence.…”

Section: Cities As Incubators Of Evolutionary Noveltiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Zoonotic emergence at the animal-environment-human interface: the forgotten urban socio-ecosystems

Dobigny¹,

Morand²

2022

Peer Community Journal

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Zoonotic emergence requires spillover from animals to humans, hence animal-human interactions. A lot has been emphasized on human intrusion into wild habitats (e.g., deforestation, hunting) and the development of agricultural and farming activities. However, the highly human-modified urban and peri-urban socio-ecosystems are also of great concern due to huge amounts of pet, domesticated and wild animals (e.g., birds, rodents and bats) that live in very close contact to very dense human populations. This adds to the existence of wet wildlife markets, urban parks and wastelands, zoos and even labs, where spillover from wildlife to humans may also occur. Furthermore, cities are transport hubs that form hotspots of import/export of living resources including animals, thus potentially promoting rapid and wide-scale spread of reservoir and vectors, hence pathogens, as well as pathogen admixture through viral recombination or bacterial plasmid exchanges. Finally, cities are deeply modified environments where living organisms, including reservoirs, vectors and pathogens, undergo strong selective pressures, thus opening the gate to evolutionary novelties, hence potential new infectious threats. As such, we believe urban socio-ecosystems should be paid more attention in terms of drivers of zoonotic emergence in humans needing adapted surveillance and mitigation. Accordingly, we propose and discuss several avenues of research and examples of actions that could be tested or generalized (e.g., focus on hotspots of emergence risks like informal settlements, wet markets or transport hubs; development of participative surveillance programs; shift towards inter-sectoral academic courses; massive investment into education and community information) in order to operationalize effective zoonotic surveillance. We advocate that this would allow ones to add emergence-preventive and early warning to usual outbreaks response strategies, thus significantly improving our collective ability to prevent zoonotic emergence and subsequent pandemics.

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Section: Cities As the Most Important Human Habitatmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Cities As Incubators Of Evolutionary Noveltiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Cities As Incubators Of Evolutionary Noveltiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Zoonotic emergence at the animal-environment-human interface: the forgotten urban socio-ecosystems

Dobigny¹,

Morand²

2022

Peer Community Journal

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“…We recognize that many of these ideas have been addressed throughout the literature and that they may not all be novel to every urban environment. In the coming decades with predicted novel research directions in urban evolutionary ecology incorporating technology, sustainability, climate change, and socio‐political considerations (Verrelli et al, 2022 ), we see our perspective as providing a valuable primer to those entering this burgeoning field from many different disciplines.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Moving past the challenges and misconceptions in urban adaptation research

Winchell

Avilés‐Rodríguez

Carlen

et al. 2022

Ecology and Evolution

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Although the field of urban evolutionary ecology has recently expanded, much progress has been made in identifying adaptations that arise as a result of selective pressures within these unique environments. However, as studies within urban environments have rapidly increased, researchers have recognized that there are challenges and opportunities in characterizing urban adaptation. Some of these challenges are a consequence of increased direct and indirect human influence, which compounds long‐recognized issues with research on adaptive evolution more generally. In this perspective, we discuss several common research challenges to urban adaptation related to (1) methodological approaches, (2) trait–environment relationships and the natural history of organisms, (3) agents and targets of selection, and (4) habitat heterogeneity. Ignoring these challenges may lead to misconceptions and further impede our ability to draw conclusions regarding evolutionary and ecological processes in urban environments. Our goal is to first shed light on the conceptual challenges of conducting urban adaptation research to help avoid the propagation of these misconceptions. We further summarize potential strategies to move forward productively to construct a more comprehensive picture of urban adaptation, and discuss how urban environments also offer unique opportunities and applications for adaptation research.

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“…However, our four-point framework brings together both conceptual and practical discussion of these ideas to move the field of urban evolutionary ecology forward productively and inclusively. In this respect, in the coming decades with predicted novel research directions in urban evolutionary ecology incorporating technology, sustainability, climate change, and sociopolitical considerations (Verrelli et al 2022), we see our perspective as providing a valuable review to those entering this burgeoning field from many different disciplines.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Moving past the challenges and misconceptions in urban adaptation research

Winchell

Avilés‐Rodríguez

Carlen

et al. 2022

Preprint

Self Cite

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Although the field of urban evolutionary ecology is in its infancy, much progress has been made in identifying adaptations that arise as a result of selective pressures within these unique environments. However, as studies within urban environments have rapidly increased, researchers have recognized there are challenges and opportunities in characterizing urban adaptation. Some of these challenges are novel as a consequence of increased direct and indirect human influence, which compounds long-recognized issues with research on adaptive evolution more generally. In this perspective, we discuss several common research challenges to urban adaptation related to: (1) methodological approaches, (2) trait-environment relationships and the natural history of organisms, (3) agents and targets of selection, and (4) habitat heterogeneity. Ignoring these challenges may lead to misconceptions and further impede our ability to draw conclusions regarding evolutionary and ecological processes in urban environments. Our goal is to first shed light on the conceptual challenges of conducting urban adaptation research to help avoid propagation of these misconceptions. We further summarize potential strategies to move forward productively to construct a more comprehensive picture of urban adaptation, and discuss how urban environments also offer unique opportunities and applications for adaptation research.

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A global horizon scan for urban evolutionary ecology

Cited by 35 publications

References 90 publications

Zoonotic emergence at the animal-environment-human interface: the forgotten urban socio-ecosystems

Zoonotic emergence at the animal-environment-human interface: the forgotten urban socio-ecosystems

Moving past the challenges and misconceptions in urban adaptation research

Moving past the challenges and misconceptions in urban adaptation research

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