Published on November 29, 2018
![Sea gull perched on metal chain hanging in an urban area](/wp-content/uploads/sites/61/2018/02/3ccb794c-68e3-42cb-a979-b132f8ff45d6-768x512.jpg)
Here in what is called the Anthropocene era, humans and our urban environments appear to be driving accelerated evolutionary change in plants, animals, fungi, viruses and more — changes that could affect key ecosystem functions and thus human well-being. These interactions between evolution and ecology are called “eco-evolutionary feedback.”
The National Science Foundation has awarded a five-year, $500,000 grant to a multi-institution research network team headed by Marina Alberti, University of Washington Professor in the Department of Urban Design and Planning, to advance understanding of these global eco-evolutionary dynamics.
Alberti is the author or co-author of several papers on the emerging topic, as well as a 2016 book, “Cities that Think Like Planets: Complexity, Resilience, and Innovation in Hybrid Ecosystems” (UW Press).
“Cities are microcosms of the evolutionary changes that are occurring on a planetary scale,” Alberti writes in the grant statement, “and thus provide a natural laboratory to advance our understanding of eco-evolutionary dynamics in a rapidly urbanizing world and generate new insights for maintaining biodiversity.”
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Originally posted on UW News by Peter Kelley