Sección Ornitología, División Zoología Vertebrados, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo, Universidad Nacional de La Plata and Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, La Plata, Argentina.
Fundación Miguel Lillo, San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina.
Evolution. 2023 Jul 27;77(8):1769-1779. doi: 10.1093/evolut/qpad081.
Urbanization is currently one of the trademarks of the Anthropocene, accelerating evolutionary processes and reshaping ecological interactions over short time scales. Species interactions represent a fundamental pillar of diversity that is being altered globally by anthropogenic change. Urban environments, despite their potential impact, have seldom been studied in relation to how they shape natural selection of phenotypic traits in multispecies interactions. Using a seed-dispersal mutualism as a study system, we estimated the regime and magnitude of phenotypic selection exerted by frugivores on fruit and seed traits across three plant populations with different degrees of urbanization (urban, semiurban, and rural). Urbanization weakened phenotypic selection via an indirect positive impact on fruit production and fitness and, to a lesser extent, through a direct positive effect on species visitation rates. Our results show that urban ecosystems may affect multifarious selection of traits in the short term and highlight the role of humans in shaping eco-evolutionary dynamics of multispecies interactions.
城市化是人类世的一个显著特征，它正在加速进化过程，并在短时间内重塑生态相互作用。物种相互作用是多样性的一个基本支柱，正在被人为变化全球范围内改变。尽管城市环境具有潜在的影响，但它们在塑造多物种相互作用中表型特征的自然选择方面的研究却很少。本研究以种子传播互利共生关系为研究系统，我们通过对三个不同城市化程度（城市、半城市和农村）的植物种群进行研究，估计了果实和种子特征的表型选择的范围和强度。城市化通过对果实产量和适应性的间接积极影响，以及在较小程度上通过对物种访问率的直接积极影响，削弱了表型选择。我们的研究结果表明，城市生态系统可能会在短期内影响特征的多种选择，并强调了人类在塑造多物种相互作用的生态进化动态方面的作用。
