Lund University, Evolutionary Ecology, SE-223 62 Lund, Sweden
J Exp Biol. 2020 Nov 18;223(Pt 22):jeb203794. doi: 10.1242/jeb.203794.
Natural habitats are rapidly declining due to urbanisation, with a concomitant decline in biodiversity in highly urbanised areas. Yet thousands of different species have colonised urban environments. These organisms are exposed to novel urban conditions, which are sometimes beneficial, but most often challenging, such as increased ambient temperature, chemicals, noise and light pollution, dietary alterations and disturbance by humans. Given the fundamental role of physiological responses in coping with such conditions, certain physiological systems such as the redox system, metabolism and hormones are thought to specifically influence organisms' ability to persist and cope with urbanisation. However, these physiological systems often show mixed responses to urbanisation. Does this mean that some individuals, populations or species are resilient to the urban environmental challenges? Or is something missing from our analyses, leading us to erroneous conclusions regarding the impact of urbanisation? To understand the impact of urbanisation, I argue that a more integrated mechanistic and ecological approach is needed, along with experiments, in order to fully understand the physiological responses; without knowledge of their ecological and evolutionary context, physiological measures alone can be misinterpreted. Furthermore, we need to further investigate the causes of and capacity for individual plasticity in order to understand not only the impact of urbanisation, but also species resilience. I argue that abiotic and biotic urban factors can interact (e.g. pollution with micro- and macronutrients) to either constrain or relax individual physiological responses - and, thereby, plasticity - on a temporal and/or spatial scale, which can lead to erroneous conclusions regarding the impact of urbanisation.
由于城市化，自然栖息地迅速减少，高度城市化地区的生物多样性也随之减少。然而，仍有数千种不同的物种在城市环境中生存。这些生物暴露在新的城市环境条件下，这些条件有时是有益的，但大多数情况下是具有挑战性的，如环境温度升高、化学物质、噪音和光污染、饮食改变以及人类的干扰。鉴于生理反应在应对这些条件中的基本作用，某些生理系统，如氧化还原系统、新陈代谢和激素，被认为会特别影响生物的生存和适应城市化的能力。然而，这些生理系统对城市化的反应往往是混合的。这是否意味着某些个体、种群或物种对城市环境的挑战具有弹性？还是我们的分析中缺少了什么，导致我们对城市化的影响得出了错误的结论？为了了解城市化的影响，我认为需要采取更综合的机制和生态方法，并进行实验，以便充分了解生理反应；如果不了解其生态和进化背景，仅通过生理测量可能会产生误解。此外，我们需要进一步研究个体可塑性的原因和能力，以便不仅了解城市化的影响，还了解物种的弹性。我认为，城市的非生物和生物因素可以相互作用（例如，污染与微量和大量营养素），从而在时间和/或空间尺度上限制或放松个体的生理反应——从而对城市化的影响得出错误的结论。
