Urban living influences the nesting success of Darwin’s finches in the Galápagos Islands

Harvey, Johanna A.; Chernicky, Kiley; Simons, Shelby R.; Verrett, Taylor B.; Chaves, Jaime A.; Knutie, Sarah A.

doi:10.1002/ece3.7360

Cited by 20 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…Over the past several decades, Darwin's finches have faced increasing challenges from invasive parasites (Wikelski et al, 2004;B. Fessl et al, 2010;Koop et al, 2016;Knutie, 2018) and predators (Gotanda, 2021), anthropogenic debris (Theodosopoulos and Gotanda, 2018;Harvey et al, 2021), and dynamic annual changes in natural and novel food availability (Grant and Grant, 1995;de León et al, 2018), which can all affect the physiology and gut microbiota of animals.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of human activity on gut microbiota and immune responses of Darwin’s finches in the Galápagos Islands

Bygrave

Zylberberg

Addesso

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Urbanization can influence animal traits, including immunity and gut microbiota. This idea has been studied in well-established urban areas, but few studies have determined the effect of early-stage urbanization on the gut microbiota and its relationship with immunity. Over the past several decades, the Galapagos Islands have seen rapid resident human population growth and tourist activity, leading to varying levels of human activity of four of thirteen Islands. Consequently, diet, gut microbiota, and immunity of endemic animals, such as Darwin's finches, may have changed. The goal of this study was to determine the effect of land use on the immune response, gut microbiota, and body measurements of Darwin's finches early-on in the rapid increase in human activity in the Islands. Specifically, we compared proxies of the immune response (haptoglobin levels, lysozyme activities, complement antibody levels, and natural antibody levels), gut microbiota (bacterial diversity, community structure and membership, and relative abundance of bacterial taxa), and body measurements (body mass, tarsus length, and scaled mass index) across undeveloped, agricultural, and urban areas in 2008 for medium ground finches (Geospiza fortis) and small ground finches (G. fuliginosa). We found that lysozyme activity was lower and bacterial diversity was higher in urban areas compared to non-urban areas across both finch species. For small ground finches, relative abundances of bacterial genera (Pseudoxanthomonas, Cloacibacterium, and Dietzia spp.) were higher in urban areas compared to non-urban areas, but this pattern was not observed in medium ground finches. Medium ground finches were smaller in undeveloped areas compared to the other two areas, but body measurements of small ground finches did not differ across areas. Our historical data provides an interesting comparison to more recent data and demonstrates that even early human activity can influence traits of organisms.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of human activity on gut microbiota and immune responses of Darwin’s finches in the Galápagos Islands

Bygrave

Zylberberg

Addesso

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…We know that Darwin's finches on human-inhabited islands can preferentially consume human foods including crisps (potato chips), biscuits (hard cookies) and rice at sites where these foods are abundant such as at tourist beaches and in urban areas [ 14 ]. Indeed, urban finches can have higher nesting success than non-urban finches [ 56 ], suggesting that at least some species of Darwin's finches can become locally adapted to urban environments. Thus, the Darwin's finches on the Galapagos represent an excellent opportunity to test whether taste preferences might underpin consumption of human foods where these are available and abundant, such as in urban or tourist areas.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Darwin's small and medium ground finches might have taste preferences, but not for human foods

et al. 2022

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Urbanization is rapidly changing ecological niches. On the inhabited Galapagos Islands, Darwin's finches consume human-introduced foods preferentially; however, it remains unclear why. Here, we presented pastry with flavour profiles typical of human foods (oily, salty and sweet) to small ground finches ( Geospiza fuliginosa ) and medium ground finches ( Geospiza fortis ) to test if latent taste preferences might drive the selection of human foods. If human food flavours were consumed more than a neutral or bitter control only at sites with human foods, then we predicted tastes were acquired after urbanization; however, if no site differences were found then this would indicate latent taste preferences. Contrary to both predictions, we found little evidence that human food flavours were preferred compared with control flavours at any site. Instead, finches showed a weak aversion to oily foods, but only at remote (no human foods present) sites. This was further supported by behavioural responses, with beak-wiping occurring more often at remote sites after finches tasted flavours associated with human foods. Our results suggest, therefore, that while Darwin's finches regularly exposed to human foods might have acquired a tolerance to human food flavours, latent taste preferences are unlikely to have played a major role in their dietary response to increased urbanization.

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“…Anthropogenic effects on the Galápagos Islands influence both finch and T . cistoides populations (De León et al, 2019 ; Gotanda, 2020 ; Harvey et al, 2021 ; McNew et al, 2017 ). Humans are a key disperser of T .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In turn, finches influence mericarp survival and select for smaller, harder, and more defended mericarps (Carvajal-Endara et al, 2020). Anthropogenic effects on the Galápagos Islands influence both finch and T. cistoides populations (De León et al, 2019;Gotanda, 2020;Harvey et al, 2021;McNew et al, 2017). Humans are a key disperser of T. cistoides on the Galápagos (Johnson et al, 2020), and resource partitioning in G. fortis declines in towns (De León et al, 2019;Hendry et al, 2006), likely due to the increased availability of human food (De León et al, 2019) and human-induced behaviour modifications (Gotanda, 2020).…”

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confidence: 99%

Urbanization alters interactions between Darwin's finches and Tribulus cistoides on the Galápagos Islands

Rivkin

Johnson²,

Chaves

et al. 2021

Ecology and Evolution

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Urban living influences the nesting success of Darwin’s finches in the Galápagos Islands

Abstract: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Cited by 20 publications

References 69 publications

Influence of human activity on gut microbiota and immune responses of Darwin’s finches in the Galápagos Islands

Influence of human activity on gut microbiota and immune responses of Darwin’s finches in the Galápagos Islands

Darwin's small and medium ground finches might have taste preferences, but not for human foods

Urbanization alters interactions between Darwin's finches and Tribulus cistoides on the Galápagos Islands

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