Behavioural adjustments for a life in the city
TL;DR: It is presented both theoretical and empirical arguments to show that behavioural adjustments to urban habitats are widespread and that they may potentially be important in facilitating resource use, avoiding disturbances and enhancing communication.
About: This article is published in Animal Behaviour.The article was published on 2013-05-01. It has received 510 citations till now.
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TL;DR: This review considers the pivotal role that behavior plays in determining the fate of species under human-induced environmental change and discusses the importance of behavioral plasticity and whether adaptive plastic responses are sufficient in keeping pace with changing conditions.
Abstract: Humans have brought about unprecedented changes to environments worldwide. For many species, behavioral adjustments represent the first response to altered conditions. In this review, we consider the pivotal role that behavior plays in determining the fate of species under human-induced environmental change and highlight key research priorities. In particular, we discuss the importance of behavioral plasticity and whether adaptive plastic responses are sufficient in keeping pace with changing conditions. We then examine the interplay between individual behavioral responses and population processes and consider the many ways in which changes in behavior can affect ecosystem function and stability. Lastly, we turn to the evolutionary consequences of anthropogenic change and consider the impact of altered behaviors on the evolutionary process and whether behavior can facilitate or hinder adaptation to environmental change.
638 citations
TL;DR: It is argued that fine-grained and coarse- grained variation may differentially select for activational and developmental plasticity, respectively, because environmental variation experienced by an organism is largely determined by behaviour.
502 citations
TL;DR: Several existing frameworks are suggested that are potentially useful for explaining behavioural responses to HIREC: signal detection theory, adaptive plasticity theory, extended reaction norms and cost–benefit theory on variation in learning.
419 citations
Cites background from "Behavioural adjustments for a life ..."
...Indeed, animals with larger brains that might often be more behaviourally flexible or even innovative appear to adjust better to HIREC in the sense of being more likely to become invasive or urbanized (Sol et al. 2005, 2013)....
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...…habitats, animals must both accept the novel habitat (either because urban habitat resembles the animal’s natural habitat in some fundamental way or because the animal is bold and exploratory) and have the flexibility to adjust to novel stressors associated with the new habitat (Sol et al. 2013)....
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TL;DR: How between-individual differences in behavioural plasticity can result from additive and interactive effects of genetic make-up and past environmental conditions, and under which conditions natural selection might favour this form of between- individual variation is discussed.
331 citations
TL;DR: It is shown that although random processes account for part of the species loss associated with urbanisation, much of the loss is associated with a lack of appropriate adaptations of most species for exploiting resources and avoiding risks of the urban environments.
Abstract: Urbanisation is considered an important driver of current biodiversity loss, but the underlying causes are not fully understood. It is generally assumed that this loss reflects the fact that most organisms do not tolerate well the environmental alterations associated with urbanisation. Nevertheless, current evidence is inconclusive and the alternative that the biodiversity loss is the result of random mechanisms has never been evaluated. Analysing changes in abundance between urbanised environments and their non-urbanised surroundings of > 800 avian species from five continents, we show here that although random processes account for part of the species loss associated with urbanisation, much of the loss is associated with a lack of appropriate adaptations of most species for exploiting resources and avoiding risks of the urban environments. These findings have important conservation implications because the extinction of species with particular features should have higher impact on biodiversity and ecosystem function than a random loss.
269 citations
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TL;DR: This work has shown that predation is a major selective force in the evolution of several morphological and behavioral characteristics of animals and the importance of predation during evolutionary time has been underestimated.
Abstract: Predation has long been implicated as a major selective force in the evolution of several morphological and behavioral characteristics of animals. The importance of predation during evolutionary ti...
7,461 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the Dickcissel sex ratio is employed as an indirect index of suitability and a sex ratio index was found to be correlated positively with density, consistent with the hypothesis that territorial behavior in males of this species limits their density.
Abstract: This example is provided so that non-theorists may see actual applications of the theory previously described. The Dickcissel sex ratio is employed as an indirect index of suitability. A sex ratio index was found to be correlated positively with density. This is consistent with the hypothesis that territorial behavior in the males of this species limits their density. This study provides a valid example of how the problem can be approached and offers a first step in the eventual identification of the role of territorial behavior in the habitat distribution of a common species.
4,210 citations
TL;DR: A review by Czech and colleagues (2000) finds that urbanization endangers more species and is more geographically ubiquitous in the mainland United States than any other human activity, emphasizing the uniquely far-reaching transformations that accompany urban sprawl as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: A the many human activities that cause habitat loss (Czech et al. 2000), urban development produces some of the greatest local extinction rates and frequently eliminates the large majority of native species (Vale and Vale 1976, Luniak 1994, Kowarik 1995, Marzluff 2001). Also, urbanization is often more lasting than other types of habitat loss. Throughout much of New England, for example, ecological succession is restoring forest habitat lost from farming and logging, whereas most urbanized areas in that region not only persist but continue to expand and threaten other local ecosystems (Stein et al. 2000). Another great conservation challenge of urban growth is that it replaces the native species that are lost with widespread “weedy” nonnative species. This replacement constitutes the process of biotic homogenization that threatens to reduce the biological uniqueness of local ecosystems (Blair 2001). Urban-gradient studies show that, for many taxa, for example, plants (Kowarik 1995) and birds and butterflies (Blair and Launer 1997), the number of nonnative species increases toward centers of urbanization, while the number of native species decreases. The final conservation challenge of sprawl is its current and growing geographical extent (Benfield et al. 1999). A review by Czech and colleagues (2000) finds that urbanization endangers more species and is more geographically ubiquitous in the mainland United States than any other human activity. Species threatened by urbanization also tend to be threatened by agriculture, recreation, roads, and many other human impacts, emphasizing the uniquely far-reaching transformations that accompany urban sprawl. About 50% of the US population lives in the suburbs, with another 30% living in cities (USCB 2001). Over 5% of the total surface area of the United States is covered by urban and other built-up areas (USCB 2001). This is more land than is covered by the combined total of national and state parks and areas preserved by the Nature Conservancy. More ominously, the growth rate of urban land use is accelerating faster than land preserved as parks or conservation areas by the Conservancy (figure 1). Much of this growth is from the spread of suburban housing. It is estimated, for example, that residential yards occupy 135,000 acres in the state of Missouri (MDC 2002). This residential landscape represents nearly 1% of the total area of Missouri and is nearly three times the area occupied by Missouri state parks. Here I review the growing literature that documents how urban (and suburban) expansion harms native ecosystems. This knowledge can aid conservation efforts in two major ways. One is through the use of ecological principles—such as preserving remnant natural habitat and restoring modified habitats to promote native species conservation—to reduce the impacts of urbanization on native ecosystems. Rare and endangered species sometimes occur in urbanized habitats (Kendle and Forbes 1997, Godefroid 2001) and thus could be conserved there. Managing the large amount of residential vegetation (1% of the state area, as noted above) in ways that promote native plants and animals could also make a significant contribution to conservation.
3,096 citations
TL;DR: The existence of behavioral syndromes focuses the attention of behavioral ecologists on limited (less than optimal) behavioral plasticity and behavioral carryovers across situations, rather than on optimal plasticity in each isolated situation.
Abstract: Recent studies suggest that populations and species often exhibit behavioral syndromes; that is, suites of correlated behaviors across situations. An example is an aggression syndrome where some individuals are more aggressive, whereas others are less aggressive across a range of situations and contexts. The existence of behavioral syndromes focuses the attention of behavioral ecologists on limited (less than optimal) behavioral plasticity and behavioral carryovers across situations, rather than on optimal plasticity in each isolated situation. Behavioral syndromes can explain behaviors that appear strikingly non-adaptive in an isolated context (e.g. inappropriately high activity when predators are present, or excessive sexual cannibalism). Behavioral syndromes can also help to explain the maintenance of individual variation in behavioral types, a phenomenon that is ubiquitous, but often ignored. Recent studies suggest that the behavioral type of an individual, population or species can have important ecological and evolutionary implications, including major effects on species distributions, on the relative tendencies of species to be invasive or to respond well to environmental change, and on speciation rates. Although most studies of behavioral syndromes to date have focused on a few organisms, mainly in the laboratory, further work on other species, particularly in the field, should yield numerous new insights.
2,954 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a basic conservation challenge is that urban biota is often quite diverse and very abundant, and that, because so many urban species are immigrants adapting to city habitats, urbanites of all income levels become increasingly disconnected from local indigenous species and their natural ecosystems.
2,823 citations