ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2016
Urbanization drives the evolution of parallel clines in plant populations.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers.
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Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed, 123 citations in OpenAlex.
- Fine-scale spatial variation in eastern grey squirrel melanism across a complex urban landscape.The Journal of animal ecology · 2026Article
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- Random and non-random variation in flower colour along an urban-rural gradient in the introduced mustard Hesperis matronalis.Annals of botany · 2026Article
- A Beginner's How-To Guide to Urban Population Genetics and Genomics.Ecology and evolution · 2026Review
- Effects of urbanization on local adaptation and eco-evolutionary feedbacks in white clover.Nature ecology & evolution · 2025Article
- Urbanization Alters Phenology, Mating System Allocation, and Life History ofEcology and evolution · 2025Article
- Review
- The flower does not open in the city: evolution of plant reproductive traits of Portulaca oleracea in urban populations.Annals of botany · 2025Article
- Some like it hot: adaptation to the urban heat island in common dandelion.Evolution letters · 2024Article
- Online toolkits for collaborative and inclusive global research in urban evolutionary ecology.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Seasonal dynamics in the mammalian microbiome between disparate environments.Ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- Phenotypic clines in herbivore resistance and reproductive traits in wild plants along an agricultural gradient.PloS one · 2023Article
- Moving past the challenges and misconceptions in urban adaptation research.Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- Hybrid evolution repeats itself across environmental contexts in Texas sunflowers (Helianthus).Evolution; international journal of organic evolution · 2022Article
- Phenotypic and genotypic divergence of plant-herbivore interactions along an urbanization gradient.Evolutionary applications · 2022Article
- Herbivory on the pedunculate oak along an urbanization gradient in Europe: Effects of impervious surface, local tree cover, and insect feeding guild.Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- Continent-wide genomic signatures of adaptation to urbanisation in a songbird across Europe.Nature communications · 2021Article
- In a nutshell, a reciprocal transplant experiment reveals local adaptation and fitness trade-offs in response to urban evolution in an acorn-dwelling ant.Evolution; international journal of organic evolution · 2021Article
- Evidence for the evolution of thermal tolerance, but not desiccation tolerance, in response to hotter, drier city conditions in a cosmopolitan, terrestrial isopod.Evolutionary applications · 2021Article
- Socio-eco-evolutionary dynamics in cities.Evolutionary applications · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Urban ecosystems are an increasingly dominant feature of terrestrial landscapes. While evidence that species can adapt to urban environments is accumulating, the mechanisms through which urbanization imposes natural selection on populations are poorly understood. The identification of adaptive phenotypic changes (i.e. clines) along urbanization gradients would facilitate our understanding of the selective factors driving adaptation in cities. Here, we test for phenotypic clines in urban ecosystems by sampling the frequency of a Mendelian-inherited trait-cyanogenesis-in white clover (Trifolium repens L.) populations along urbanization gradients in four cities. Cyanogenesis protects plants from herbivores, but reduces tolerance to freezing temperatures. We found that the frequency of cyanogenic plants within populations decreased towards the urban centre in three of four cities. A field experiment indicated that spatial variation in herbivory is unlikely to explain these clines. Rather, colder minimum winter ground temperatures in urban areas compared with non-urban areas, caused by reduced snow cover in cities, may select against cyanogenesis. In the city with no cline, high snow cover might protect plants from freezing damage in the city centre. Our study suggests that populations are adapting to urbanization gradients, but regional climatic patterns may ultimately determine whether adaptation occurs.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.