Urbanization reshapes a food web

Start, Denon; Barbour, Matthew A.; Bonner, Colin

doi:10.1111/1365-2656.13136

Cited by 35 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Urban food webs tend to have fewer species, and more interactions per species (i.e. greater connectivity [107]), which might help to promote the exchange of microbiota between the microbiomes of co-occurring colonizing wildlife. Greater connectivity and spatial overlap between conand hetero-speci c hosts within urban environments could facilitate more frequent microbial dispersal when compared to rural sites.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shades of Grey: Host Phenotype Dependent Effect of Urbanization on the Bacterial Microbiome of a Wild Mammal

Stothart

Newman

2021

Preprint

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Background Host-associated microbiota are integral to the ecology of their host and may help wildlife species cope with rapid environmental change. Urbanization is a globally replicated form of severe environmental change which we can leverage to better understand wildlife microbiomes. Does the colonization of separate cities result in parallel changes in the intestinal microbiome of wildlife, and if so, does within-city habitat heterogeneity matter? Using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing, we quantified the effect of urbanization on the microbiome of eastern grey squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis). Eastern grey squirrels are ubiquitous in rural and urban environments throughout their native range, across which they display an apparent coat colour polymorphism (agouti, black, intermediate). Results Grey squirrel microbiomes differed between rural and city environments; however, comparable variation was explained by habitat heterogeneity within cities. Our analyses suggest that operational taxonomic unit (OTU) community structure was more strongly influenced by local environmental conditions (rural and city forests versus human built habitats) than urbanization of the broader landscape (city versus rural). The bacterial genera characterizing the microbiomes of built-environment squirrels are thought to specialize on host-derived products and have been linked in previous research to low fibre diets. However, despite an effect of urbanization at fine spatial scales, phylogenetic patterns in the microbiome were coat colour phenotype dependent. City and built environment agouti squirrels displayed greater phylogenetic beta-dispersion than those in rural or forest environments, and null modelling results indicated that the phylogenetic structure of urban agouti squirrels did not differ greatly from stochastic expectations. Conclusions Habitat heterogeneity at fine spatial scales affects host-associated microbiomes, however, we found little evidence that this pattern was the result of similar selective pressures acting on the microbiome within environments. Further, this result, those of phylogeny-independent analyses, and patterns of beta-dispersion lead us to suggest that microbiota dispersal and ecological drift are integral to shaping the inter-environmental differences we observed. These patterns were partly mediated by squirrel coat colour phenotype. Given a well-known urban cline in squirrel coat colour melanism, grey squirrels provide a useful free-living system with which to study how host genetics mediate environment x microbiome interactions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shades of Grey: Host Phenotype Dependent Effect of Urbanization on the Bacterial Microbiome of a Wild Mammal

Stothart

Newman

2021

Preprint

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“…Urban food webs tend to have fewer species, and more interactions per species (i.e. greater connectivity [107]), which might help to promote the exchange of microbiota between the microbiomes of co-occurring colonizing wildlife. Greater connectivity and spatial overlap between con-and hetero-specific hosts within urban environments could facilitate more frequent microbial dispersal when compared to rural sites.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shades of grey: Coat-colour dependent effect of urbanization on the bacterial microbiome of a wild mammal

Stothart

Newman

2021

Preprint

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Background: Host-associated microbiota can be fundamental to the ecology of their host and may even help wildlife species colonize novel niches or cope with rapid environmental change. Urbanization is a globally replicated form of severe environmental change which we can leverage to better understand wildlife microbiomes. Does the colonization of separate cities result in parallel changes in the intestinal microbiome of wildlife, and if so, does within-city habitat heterogeneity matter? Using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing, we quantified the effect of urbanization on the microbiome of eastern grey squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis). Eastern grey squirrels are ubiquitous in both rural and urban environments throughout their native range, across which they display an apparent coat colour polymorphism (agouti, black, intermediate). Results: Grey squirrel microbiomes differed between rural and city environments; however, comparable variation was explained by habitat heterogeneity within cities. Our analyses suggest that operational taxonomic unit (OTU) community structure was more strongly influenced by local environmental conditions (rural and city forests versus human built habitats) than urbanization of the broader landscape (city versus rural). Many of the bacterial genera identified as characterizing the microbiomes of built-environment squirrels are though to specialize on host-derived products and have been linked in previous research to low fibre diets. However, despite an effect of urbanization at fine spatial scales, phylogenetic patterns in the microbiome were coat colour phenotype dependent. City and built environment agouti squirrels displayed greater phylogenetic beta-dispersion than those in rural or forest environments, and null modelling results indicated that the phylogenetic structure of urban agouti squirrels did not differ greatly from stochastic phylogenetic expectations. Conclusions: Habitat heterogeneity at fine spatial scales affects host-associated microbiomes, however, we found little evidence that this pattern was the result of similar selective pressures acting on the microbiome within environments. Further, this result, those of phylogeny-independent analyses, and patterns of beta-dispersion lead us to suggest that microbiota dispersal and ecological drift are integral to shaping the inter-environmental differences we observed. These patterns were partly mediated by squirrel coat colour phenotype, and therefore putatively, host physiology. Given a well-known urban cline in squirrel coat colour melanism, grey squirrels provide an ideal free-living system with which to study how host genetics mediate environment x microbiome interactions.

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“…Remnant urban food webs have been shown to support less diverse ecological communities, with specialist species and rare species being particularly vulnerable. Urbanization can be seen as destabilizing, reshaping ecological stability and (dis)assembling species interactions (Start et al, 2020). We note that our intent with Figure 2 is not to define the only possible sets of food webs in specific combinations of ecological function, ecological intentionality, and space [i.e., the locations of the images in (x,y,z) space in Figure 2] but rather to encourage readers to consider the myriad possibilities about how effects of these different variables may play out in "natural" and designed food webs at different scales.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Urban food webs interact with human socioeconomic and cultural systems, including designed landscapes, governance structures, and social networks. The uniquely defined ecological communities and food webs found in urban ecosystems have been described using a variety of terms, from "urban assemblages" (Aronson et al, 2017) and "urban metacommunities" (Andrade et al, 2020) to "ecological networks across environmental gradients" (Tylianakis and Morris, 2017), "ecological networks" (or "meta-networks") (Mata et al, 2019), "interaction networks" (Start et al, 2020), living shorelines, and green infrastructure (Hostetler et al, 2011), as well as the more concise "urban food webs" (Faeth et al, 2005;Warren et al, 2006;Aronson et al, 2017) 2 . Each of these terms includes concepts from community, ecosystem, landscape, and urban ecology.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Designing (for) Urban Food Webs

Felson

Ellison

2021

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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Interest is growing in designing resilient and ecologically rich urban environments that provide social and ecological benefits. Regenerative and biocentric designs fostering urban ecological habitats including food webs that provide ecosystem services for people and wildlife increasingly are being sought. However, the intentional design of urban landscapes for food webs remains in an early stage with few precedents and many challenges. In this paper, we explore the potential to design (for) urban food webs through collaborations between designers and ecologists. We start by examining the ecology and management of Jamaica Bay in New York City as a case study of an anthropogenic landscape where ecosystems are degraded and the integrity of extant food webs are intertwined with human agency. A subsequent design competition focusing on ecological design and management of this large-scale landscape for animal habitat and ecosystem services for people illustrates how designers approach this anthropogenic landscape. This case study reveals that both designing urban landscapes for food webs and directly designing and manipulating urban food webs are complicated and challenging to achieve and maintain, but they have the potential to increase ecological health of, and enhance ecosystem services in, urban environments. We identify opportunities to capitalize on species interactions across trophic structures and to introduce managed niches in biologically engineered urban systems. The design competition reveals an opportunity to approach urban landscapes and ecological systems creatively through a proactive design process that includes a carefully crafted collaborative approach to constructing ecologically functioning landscapes that can integrate societal demands. As designers increasingly seek to build, adapt, and manage urban environments effectively, it will be critical to resolve the contradictions and challenges associated with human needs, ecosystem dynamics, and interacting assemblages of species. Ecologists and designers are still discovering and experimenting with designing (for) urban food webs and fostering species interactions within them. We recommend generating prototypes of urban food webs through a learning-by-doing approach in urban development projects. Design and implementation of urban food webs also can lead to research opportunities involving monitoring and experiments that identify and solve challenges of food-web construction while supporting and encouraging ongoing management.

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Urbanization reshapes a food web

Cited by 35 publications

References 45 publications

Shades of Grey: Host Phenotype Dependent Effect of Urbanization on the Bacterial Microbiome of a Wild Mammal

Shades of Grey: Host Phenotype Dependent Effect of Urbanization on the Bacterial Microbiome of a Wild Mammal

Shades of grey: Coat-colour dependent effect of urbanization on the bacterial microbiome of a wild mammal

Designing (for) Urban Food Webs

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