Authors
Luis F De León, Diana MT Sharpe, Kiyoko M Gotanda, Joost AM Raeymaekers, Jaime A Chaves, Andrew P Hendry, Jeffrey Podos
Publication date
2019/8
Journal
Evolutionary Applications
Volume
12
Issue
7
Pages
1329-1343
Description
Urbanization is influencing patterns of biological evolution in ways that are only beginning to be explored. One potential effect of urbanization is in modifying ecological resource distributions that underlie niche differences and that thus promote and maintain species diversification. Few studies have assessed such modifications, or their potential evolutionary consequences, in the context of ongoing adaptive radiation. We study this effect in Darwin's finches on the Galápagos Islands, by quantifying feeding preferences and diet niche partitioning across sites with different degrees of urbanization. We found higher finch density in urban sites and that feeding preferences and diets at urban sites skew heavily toward human food items. Furthermore, we show that finches at urban sites appear to be accustomed to the presence of people, compared with birds at sites with few people. In addition, we found that human …
Total citations
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Scholar articles
LF De León, DMT Sharpe, KM Gotanda… - Evolutionary Applications, 2019