Biologia Futura: adaptive changes in urban populations

Liker, András

doi:10.1007/s42977-020-00005-9

Cited by 14 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Urbanization is a major form of global anthropogenic landscape conversion. The associated changes (e.g., altered microclimate and food availability, increased pollution, and human disturbance) could be strong drivers of fast evolutionary responses in cities, making urban habitats an ideal setting to study the adaptability of species to rapid ecological changes (Rivkin et al 2019, Liker 2020. Urban areas, for example, have strongly altered microclimate (Cui & Shi 2012) and food availability (Robb et al 2008, Seress et al 2018, which, in turn, may influence the thermoregulatory properties of body feathers.…”

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“…When compared to more natural areas, urban environments often harbour a reduced abundance of arthropods (Jones & Leather 2012, New 2015, Fenoglio et al 2020, which may also be of lower quality (e.g., lower carotenoid content in caterpillars at urban versus rural sites; Isaksson & Andersson 2007) and have smaller body size (Merckx et al 2018), resulting in a relative scarcity of high-quality food sources (e.g., lepidopteran larvae; Narango et al 2018, Seress et al 2018, 2020, Jarrett et al 2020 for urban insectivorous birds. On the other hand, cities offer large amounts of low-quality, easily accessible anthropogenic food which is readily consumed by birds (Robb et al 2008).…”

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Urban nestlings have reduced number of feathers in Great Tits (Parus major)

Sándor

Liker

Sinkovics

et al. 2021

Ibis

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The plumage of birds plays an essential role in thermal insulation and influences the heat tolerance of birds. These plumage functions are mainly determined by the number and the density of feathers, but it is unclear how feather density responds to environmental changes in wild populations. In urban birds, both high temperature and limited food could generate changes in plumage traits. To investigate the effect of urbanization, we compared the number of feathers in nestlings between urban and forest Great Tits Parus major using a novel non-invasive method. We showed that urban nestlings have fewer feathers than forest nestlings at 6-9 days old. Although the density of feathers was slightly higher in urban nestlings, this was the result of the smaller size of their feather tracts. We suggest that the reduced feather number may be the result of either adaptation to higher urban temperatures, constrained feather development due to limited optimal nestling-food sources in urban environments, or both. Concentrating body feathers in a reduced tract area may also help birds to adapt to higher urban temperatures because this can increase the relative size of bare body surfaces which may facilitate heat dissipation. We suggest several possibilities for future studies that would help to disentangle the underlying mechanisms responsible for the observed patterns.

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Urban nestlings have reduced number of feathers in Great Tits (Parus major)

Sándor

Liker

Sinkovics

et al. 2021

Ibis

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“…It remains unclear, whether the observed differences in acoustic behavior (echolocation and social) are a consequence of the mentioned intraspecific variability (plasticity), or possibly 10.3389/fevo.2022.939408 even reflect adaptive evolution. Evidence suggests that selection can cause evolutionary shifts within only a few generations, leading to rapid microevolution with substantial implications (Miranda, 2017;Liker, 2020). Divergence in acoustic behavior may emerge as a result of either direct ecological selection, genetic drift, cultural drift, or indirect ecological selection (Jiang et al, 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

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Bats adjust echolocation and social call design as a response to urban environments

Starik

Göttert²

2022

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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Behavioral traits play a major role in the successful adaptation of wildlife to urban conditions. We investigated and compared the acoustic behavior of free ranging bats in rural (Havelland, Brandenburg) and urban (Berlin city center) green areas (n = 6 sites) to assess possible effects of urbanization on bat vocalizations using automated real-time recordings from May to October 2020 and 2021. We show that foraging and social call activity of commonly occurring bat species was lower in urban areas compared to rural areas. We present data on rural-urban variation in acoustic parameters of echolocation and Type D social calls (produced during flight) using the example of the common pipistrelle Pipistrellus pipistrellus. Calls from urban sites revealed significantly higher end and peak frequencies compared to rural site calls. In addition, urban social calls present a higher degree of complexity as they structurally differed from rural social calls with regard to assemblage and number of call components. Moreover, urban social calls were emitted in a presumably different context than rural calls: antagonistic social calls in urban areas were detected throughout the year and in the acoustic absence of conspecifics and heterospecifics. Our results provide evidence for the ability of P. pipistrellus to modulate temporal and spectral features of echolocation and social calls, as well as patterns of social call production, in order to compensate for constraints imposed by the urban acoustic environment. We suggest that this acoustic behavioral plasticity plays a major role in the degree of adaptation of insectivorous bats to urban habitats.

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“…Selecting relevant information is an important aspect of animals' adaptation to the urban habitat, where disturbing stimuli, like light, noise and volatile chemicals, act as interfering sensory pollutants [11,12]. Urban populations often differ from those in natural habitats in behaviour, personalities and life histories (reviewed in [13]). The behaviour of urban birds is influenced by anthropogenic noise and light, with negative fitness consequences; these sensory pollutants have also been linked to bird signalling and sensory perception [11].…”

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Birds differentially prioritize visual and olfactory foraging cues depending on habitat of origin and sex

2023

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Animals interpret their environment by combining information from multiple senses. The relative usefulness of different senses may vary between species, habitats and sexes; yet, how multimodal stimuli are integrated and prioritized is unknown for most taxa. We experimentally assessed foraging preferences of great tits ( Parus major ) to test whether urban and forest individuals prioritize visual and olfactory cues differently during foraging. We trained 13 wild-caught birds to associate multimodal (colour + odour) cues with a food reward and assessed their foraging preferences in a cue-separation test. In this, the birds could choose between the multimodal training cue and its olfactory or visual components. Our results suggest that the birds did not perceive multimodal cues in an integrated way, as their response was not stronger than for unimodal cue components. Urban birds preferred olfactory cues, while forest birds preferred visual cues. Nevertheless, female birds preferred the multimodal cue, while males foraged more randomly with respect to which cue was present. These findings contribute to our understanding of the relative roles of vision and olfaction in bird foraging behaviour. Future work should focus on how habitat- and sex-specific sensory prioritization modifies bird foraging behaviour and foraging success in the context of urban adaptations across populations.

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Biologia Futura: adaptive changes in urban populations

Cited by 14 publications

References 57 publications

Urban nestlings have reduced number of feathers in Great Tits (Parus major)

Urban nestlings have reduced number of feathers in Great Tits (Parus major)

Bats adjust echolocation and social call design as a response to urban environments

Birds differentially prioritize visual and olfactory foraging cues depending on habitat of origin and sex

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