Online toolkits for collaborative and inclusive global research in urban evolutionary ecology.

Urban evolutionary ecology is inherently interdisciplinary. Moreover, it is a field with global significance. However, bringing researchers and resources together across fields and countries is challenging.

The changing dynamics of ant-tree cholla mutualisms along a desert urbanization gradient.

Urbanization, among the most widespread and multifaceted anthropogenic change drivers, exerts strong influences on a diversity of ecological communities worldwide. We have begun to understand how urbanization affects species diversity, yet we still have limited knowledge about the ways that species interactions are altered by urbanization. We have an especially poor understanding of how urbanization influences stress-buffering mutualisms, despite the high levels of multivariate stress that urban organisms must overcome and the importance of these interactions to the fitness of many organisms.

A global horizon scan for urban evolutionary ecology.

Research on the evolutionary ecology of urban areas reveals how human-induced evolutionary changes affect biodiversity and essential ecosystem services. In a rapidly urbanizing world imposing many selective pressures, a time-sensitive goal is to identify the emergent issues and research priorities that affect the ecology and evolution of species within cities. Here, we report the results of a horizon scan of research questions in urban evolutionary ecology submitted by 100 interdisciplinary scholars.

Global urban environmental change drives adaptation in white clover.

Urbanization transforms environments in ways that alter biological evolution. We examined whether urban environmental change drives parallel evolution by sampling 110,019 white clover plants from 6169 populations in 160 cities globally. Plants were assayed for a Mendelian antiherbivore defense that also affects tolerance to abiotic stressors.

Socio-eco-evolutionary dynamics in cities.

Cities are uniquely complex systems regulated by interactions and feedbacks between nature and human society. Characteristics of human society-including culture, economics, technology and politics-underlie social patterns and activity, creating a heterogeneous environment that can influence and be influenced by both ecological and evolutionary processes. Increasing research on urban ecology and evolutionary biology has coincided with growing interest in eco-evolutionary dynamics, which encompasses the interactions and reciprocal feedbacks between evolution and ecology.

Homogenizing an urban habitat mosaic: arthropod diversity declines in New York City parks after Super Storm Sandy.

The frequency and intensity of hurricanes are increasing globally, and anthropogenic modifications in cities have created systems that may be particularly vulnerable to their negative effects. Organisms living in cities are exposed to variable levels of chronic environmental stress. However, whether chronic stress ameliorates or exacerbates the negative effects of hurricanes remains an open question.

Microbial diversity of extreme habitats in human homes.

High-throughput sequencing techniques have opened up the world of microbial diversity to scientists, and a flurry of studies in the most remote and extreme habitats on earth have begun to elucidate the key roles of microbes in ecosystems with extreme conditions. These same environmental extremes can also be found closer to humans, even in our homes. Here, we used high-throughput sequencing techniques to assess bacterial and archaeal diversity in the extreme environments inside human homes (e.

Correction to 'Diversity and evolution of the primate skin microbiome'.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2015.

The effect of habitual and experimental antiperspirant and deodorant product use on the armpit microbiome.

An ever expanding body of research investigates the human microbiome in general and the skin microbiome in particular. Microbiomes vary greatly from individual to individual. Understanding the factors that account for this variation, however, has proven challenging, with many studies able to account statistically for just a small proportion of the inter-individual variation in the abundance, species richness or composition of bacteria.

Diversity and evolution of the primate skin microbiome.

Skin microbes play a role in human body odour, health and disease. Compared with gut microbes, we know little about the changes in the composition of skin microbes in response to evolutionary changes in hosts, or more recent behavioural and cultural changes in humans. No studies have used sequence-based approaches to consider the skin microbe communities of gorillas and chimpanzees, for example.

Stable isotopes reveal links between human food inputs and urban ant diets.

The amount of energy consumed within an average city block is an order of magnitude higher than that consumed in any other ecosystem over a similar area. This is driven by human food inputs, but the consequence of these resources for urban animal populations is poorly understood. We investigated the role of human foods in ant diets across an urbanization gradient in Manhattan using carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes.

Non-additive benefit or cost? Disentangling the indirect effects that occur when plants bearing extrafloral nectaries and honeydew-producing insects share exotic ant mutualists.

Background And Aims: In complex communities, organisms often form mutualisms with multiple different partners simultaneously. Non-additive effects may emerge among species linked by these positive interactions. Ants commonly participate in mutualisms with both honeydew-producing insects (HPI) and their extrafloral nectary (EFN)-bearing host plants.

Geographic variation in a facultative mutualism: consequences for local arthropod composition and diversity.

Geographic variation in the outcome of interspecific interactions may influence not only the evolutionary trajectories of species but also the structure of local communities. We investigated this community consequence of geographic variation for a facultative mutualism between ants and wild cotton (Gossypium thurberi). Ants consume wild cotton extrafloral nectar and can protect plants from herbivores.

Mutualism in a community context: the positive feedback between an ant-aphid mutualism and a gall-making midge.

Although mutualisms are widespread and often described in natural history accounts, their ecological influences on other community members remain largely unexplored. Many of these influences are likely a result of indirect effects. In this field study, we investigated the indirect effects of an ant-aphid mutualism on the abundance, survival rates and parasitism rates of a co-occurring herbivore.