Urban evolution
Urban evolution refers to the heritable genetic changes of populations in response to urban development and anthropogenic activities in urban areas. Urban evolution can be caused by non-random mating, mutation, genetic drift, gene flow, or evolution by natural selection. In the context of Earth's living history, rapid urbanization is a relatively recent phenomenon, yet biologists have already observed evolutionary change in numerous species compared to their rural counterparts on a relatively short timescale.
Strong selection pressures due to urbanization play a big role in this process. Urbanization introduces distinct challenges such as altered microclimates, pollution, habitat fragmentation, and differential resource availability. These changed environmental conditions exert unique selection pressures on their inhabitants, leading to physiological and behavioral adaptations in city-dwelling plant and animal species. However, there is also discussion on whether some of these emerging traits are truly a consequence of genetic adaptation, or examples of phenotypic plasticity. There is also a significant change in species composition between rural and urban ecosystems.
Understanding how anthropogenic activity can influence the traits of other living beings can help humans better understand their effect on the environment, particularly as cities continue to grow. Shared aspects of cities worldwide give ample opportunity for scientists to study the specific evolutionary responses in these rapidly changed landscapes independently. How certain organisms adapt to urban environments while others cannot gives a live perspective on rapid evolution.
Urbanization
With urban growth, the urban-rural gradient has seen a large shift in distribution of humans, moving from low density to very high density within the last millennia. This has brought a large change to environments as well as societies.Urbanization transforms natural habitats into completely altered living spaces that sustain large human populations. Increasing congregation of humans accompanies the expansion of infrastructure, industry and housing. Natural vegetation and soil are mostly replaced or covered by dense grey materials. Urbanized areas continue to expand both in size and number globally; in 2018, the United Nations estimated that 68% of people globally will live in ever-expanding urban areas by 2050.
Urban evolution selective agents
Urbanization intensifies diverse stressors spatiotemporally such that they can act in concert to cause rapid evolutionary consequences such as extinction, maladaptation, or adaptation. Three factors have come to the forefront as the main evolutionary influencers in urban areas: the urban microclimate, pollution, and urban habitat fragmentation. These influence the processes that drive evolution, such as natural and sexual selection, mutation, gene flow and genetic drift.Urban microclimate
A microclimate is defined as any area where the climate differs from the surrounding area. Modifications of the landscape and other abiotic factors contribute to a changed climate in urban areas. The use of impervious dark surfaces which retain and reflect heat, and human generated heat energy lead to an urban heat island in the center of cities, where the temperature is increased significantly. A large urban microclimate does not only affect temperature, but also rainfall, snowfall, air pressure and wind, the concentration of polluted air, and how long that air remains in the city.These climatological transformations increase selection pressure on species living in urban areas, driving evolutionary changes. Certain species have shown to be adapting to the urban microclimate.
For example, a research study focused on urban thermal heterogeneity, which can lead to the formation of Urban heat islands, shows how variations in temperature due to urbanization significantly affects Feral pigeons causing changes in their metabolic processes and oxidative stress levels. Specifically, pigeons in hotter areas showed elevated oxidative stress, suggesting that urban heat could compromise their health.
Urban pollution
Many species have evolved over macroevolutionary timescales by adapting in response to the presence of toxins in the environment of the planet. Human activities, including urbanization, have greatly increased selection pressures due to pollution of the environment, climate change, ocean acidification, and other stressors. Species in urban settings must deal with higher concentrations of contaminants than naturally would occur.There are two main forms of pollution which lead to selective pressures: energy or chemical substances. Energy pollution can come in the form of artificial lighting, sounds, thermal changes, radioactive contamination and electromagnetic waves. Chemical pollution leads to the contamination of the atmosphere, the soil, water and food. All these polluting factors pose direct and indirect challenges to species inhabiting urban areas, altering species' behavior and/or physiology, which in turn can lead to evolutionary changes.
Air pollution and soil pollution have significant physiological impacts on both wildlife and plants. For urban animals, exposure to pollutants often results in respiratory issues, neurological damage, and skin irritations. Over time, animals may adapt to these stressors through changes in their physiological systems, such as increased lung capacity or more efficient detoxification mechanisms to cope with pollutants. However, the severity of these adaptations varies across species, with some developing resilience while others face diminished health. The peppered moth is a classic example of industrial melanism, where moth populations adapted to increased soot and pollutants by evolving darker coloration, which allowed them to better blend into the soot-darkened trees during the industrial revolution.
For plants, long-term exposure to pollutants like ozone can impair vital structures on their leaves, disrupting gas exchange and reducing growth. Some plants adapt by closing their stomata or producing antioxidants to mitigate the damage, while others are less equipped to cope and show signs of decline. Pollution also alters soil chemistry, affecting nutrient availability and further stressing plant growth. These physiological changes to both flora and fauna influence urban ecosystems, determining which species can survive and reproduce in polluted environments.
A study on Great tits also found that air pollutants, in combination with local tree composition and temperature, affect their nestling physiology. Specifically, antioxidant capacity and fatty acid composition in these birds were influenced by the surrounding environmental conditions, including pollution levels.
Water pollution is another major concern, to which species living in aquatic habitats, such as fish, can evolve resistance to pollutants. The Atlantic killifish has evolved to resist toxic pollutants like polychlorinated biphenyls, commonly found in polluted urban waters. This resistance is thought to be the result of mutations that allow the fish to tolerate high levels of chemicals that would otherwise be lethal.
Noise pollution, often resulting from traffic, construction, and industrial activities, is another form of energy pollution that significantly affects urban species. Prolonged exposure to high noise levels can interfere with animals' communication, navigation, feeding behaviors, and stress response mechanisms. In particular, birds are sensitive to noise pollution, as it disrupts their ability to communicate using signals, such as calls from potential mates or warnings of predators. This disruption can lead to changes in behavior, reproduction, and survival.
Urban habitat fragmentation
The fragmentation of previously intact natural habitats into smaller pockets which can still sustain organisms leads to selection and adaptation of species. These new urban patches, often called urban green spaces, come in all shapes and sizes ranging from parks, gardens, plants on balconies, to the breaks in pavement and ledges on buildings. The diversity in habitats leads to adaptation of local organisms to their own niche. And contrary to popular belief, there is higher biodiversity in urban areas than previously believed. This is due to the numerous microhabitats. These remnants of wild vegetation or artificially created habitats with often exotic plants and animals all support different kinds of species, which leads to pockets of diversity inside cities.With habitat fragmentation also comes genetic fragmentation; genetic drift and inbreeding within small isolated populations results in low genetic variation in the gene pool. Low genetic variation is generally seen as bad for chances of survival. This is why probably some species aren't able to sustain themselves in the fragmented environments of urban areas.
Urban environments create new selection pressures for species, leading to rapid adaptations. Species may experience changes in behavior, morphology, or physiology due to altered resources, human-induced pollution, and fragmented habitats. For instance, city-dwelling animals like birds may evolve shorter wings to better navigate between buildings, or insects might develop resistance to pesticides commonly used in urban settings. Urban heat islands are another factor contributing to urban evolution. Cities tend to be warmer than surrounding rural areas, causing species to adapt to higher temperatures. some insects have been observed to become more heat-tolerant over time. Pollution and light exposure also play a significant role. Many species must adapt to high levels of pollution in cities or artificial light that disrupts their natural behaviors. example birds in cities often start singing earlier in the morning due to the prevalence of artificial lighting, which can affect their mating patterns. Fragmentation of habitats has led to the creation of micro-habitats within cities, which act as isolated evolutionary zones. Species in these fragmented areas often experience unique evolutionary pressures, leading to genetic drift and divergence from rural populations.
In one study, researchers examined how early life experiences, particularly adverse conditions, influence behavior in European starlings. The study specifically explored how early life adversity—such as nutritional stress or challenging environmental conditions—may trigger adaptive behaviors in the starlings, including increased foraging and actively seeking out information later in life. The birds were found to be more efficient at locating food and gathering relevant information from their surroundings, suggesting that early adversity may encourage greater exploration and resource acquisition strategies as an adaptive response to uncertainty.
Their findings imply that animals experiencing early adversity in fragmented environments may develop enhanced abilities to locate and exploit scattered resources. This may help explain why some species, such as starlings, are able to persist and even thrive in urban settings despite habitat degradation. Fragmented urban habitats tend to be more unpredictable, with food sources often patchy and habitats divided. In such environments, animals that have faced early adversity may become more adept at navigating these challenges. Just as the starlings in the study displayed increased cognitive flexibility in their foraging and information-gathering behaviors, animals in urban ecosystems may also adopt similar strategies to cope with the effects of habitat fragmentation. Cognitive flexibility enables animals to adapt to fluctuating conditions, such as changes in food availability or alterations to shelter and nesting sites, which are common in urbanized landscapes.