life in the city

Urbanisation may well be the most dramatic global change happening today, with obvious effects on environment and wildlife. One aspect that biologists are only beginning to appreciate is that this is a large scale pseudo-experiment with similar alterations of habitat happening in many places, across climate zones, so it makes sense to study how those species that don't disappear on impact cope with the change and adapt to life in the city.

Urban ecology as a steady state has been studied for a while, but the scale and evolutionary nature of the adaptation to city life is only beginning to be appreciated, and the field still has some catching up to do to make the most of this unprecedented global experiment that has already begun.

My feature covering all this is out now in today's issue of Current Biology:


Adapting to life in the city

Current Biology Volume 28, Issue 11, 4 June 2018, Pages R635–R638

FREE access to full text and PDF download





Urban robin, own photo.


------------------

update 28.2.2019:

story in the Guardian about Rob Dunn, whose work on the biodiversity inside our homes is mentioned in my feature.