Micro-evolutionary effects of urbanisation on animal behaviour

• Applicant: Dr. Philipp Sprau
• Subject Area: Ecology and Biodiversity of Animals and Ecosystems, Organismic Interactions
• Term: from 2013 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 242327391

The rapid increase in urbanization worldwide presents severe challenges for wildlife. Urbanisation can yield specific selection pressures favouring animals that rapidly adapt to changing environmental conditions. Yet, despite the growing interest in urban ecology over the last decades, urban-induced selection pressures have, surprisingly, rarely been measured explicitly. Using a combination of descriptive and experimental field studies, this proposal aims to examine whether city environments do indeed impose selection favouring certain suites of behavioural and life-history traits. Specifically, I will test whether hypothesized strong positive directional selection on risky behaviour characterizes city environments. I propose to establish a nest box population of great tits, Parus major, along several urban-rural gradients in the city of Munich, and to measure key behaviours (boldness, aggressiveness, nest defence, and flight initiation distance) and also key proxies of fitness (reproductive success, adult annual survival) of great tits nesting in the boxes with the help of citizen scientists. The study will run over a period of three subsequent breeding seasons (years), allowing repeated sampling of individuals such that between-individual (personality) and within-individual (plasticity) variation in behaviour can be quantified. This approach will allow me to test whether urban selection pressures favour individuals that are plastic in their behaviour versus whether distinct behavioural phenotypes are favoured under certain environmental conditions. I will apply phenotypic selection analysis to estimate whether selection gradients vary as a function of the strength of urbanisation (based on quantitatively acquired nest box-specific measurements of noise, nocturnal light, human activity, and temperature profiles). The findings will show decisively how urbanisation alters patterns of selection pressures on phenotypic traits within and between individuals, and thereby provide important insights into human-induced micro-evolutionary processes. The involvement of citizens will greatly facilitate science communication of how urbanisation affects natural systems.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Participating Person: Professor Dr. Niels Dingemanse