The Pace of Modern Life, Revisited

Abstract

Wild populations must continuously adapt to environmental changes or they risk extinction. Such adaptations can be measured as phenotypic rates of change and can allow us to predict patterns of contemporary evolutionary change. About two decades ago, a dataset of phenotypic rates of change in wild populations was compiled. Since then, researchers have used (and expanded) this dataset to look at microevolutionary processes in relation to specific types of human disturbances. Here, we have updated the dataset adding 5257 estimates of phenotypic changes and used it to revisit established patterns of contemporary evolutionary change. Using this newer version, containing 6920 estimates of phenotypic changes, we revisit the conclusions of four published articles. We then synthesize the expanded dataset to compare rates of change across different types of human disturbance. Analyses of this expanded dataset suggests that: 1) a small absolute difference in rates of change exists between human disturbed and natural populations, 2) harvesting by humans results in larger rates of change than other types of disturbances, 3) introduced populations have increased rates of change, and 4) body size does not increase through time. Overall, findings from earlier analyses have largely held-up in analyses of our new dataset that encompass a much larger breadth of species, traits, and human disturbances. Lastly, we found that types of human disturbances affect rates of phenotypic change and we call for this database to serve as a stepping stone for further analyses to understand patterns of contemporary evolution.

Global meta-analysis reveals urban-associated behavioral differences among wild populations

“…This result contrasts with findings from two recent metaanalyses reporting urban-associated increased phenotypic variation in a variety of life history and morphological traits populations (Capilla-Lasheras et al, 2022;Thompson et al, 2022) but is consistent with large-scale studies demonstrating a lack of clear patterns. Specifically, in a large-scale analysis of phenotypic variation spanning 4507 effect sizes, 196 studies, and 177 species, Sanderson and colleagues found that phenotypic variation did not differ in a generalizable way by either trait type or human disturbance (Sanderson et al, 2023). Despite the absence of general patterns, it is still valuable to explore how phenotypic variation responds to urbanization within specific cases (e.g., species, phenotype, urban characteristic) to better understand the evo-ecological dynamics underlying urban-associated phenotypic change.…”