Cities are putting pressure on animals' genes, from bobcats to gulls to bedbugs

You might think evolution takes a long time
and it often does.
But in today's cities, plants animals and microbes ,
are all under immense pressure to survive and thrive.
Researchers combed through years of data
and discovered some of the genetic changes
wrought by high-rises, extensive roads,
and close association with people.
Data shows that in urban areas,
chances of mutation correlate with pollution.
Herring gulls in industrial steel towns
experience greater rates of mutation
than in rural or non industrial areas.
Genetic drift--where allele frequency changes are driven
by chance--is found in small and isolated populations.
Such conditions are now being created by cities
where fragmentation and isolation are created
through urban development.
In other words, certain traits may become more or less
common by chance rather than selection.
Salamander populations in New York City,
Montreal, and Oviedo, Spain each had lower
levels of genetic diversity in cities than more rural areas.
This decrease in diversity is leading to
increased differences between populations
not only between rural areas, but in urban ones as well.
Decreased genetic diversity can have negative impacts.
For example, extreme bottleneck events
reduce the potential for species to adapt
and can lead to inbreeding
Bobcats living in LA are experiencing a bottleneck
due to urban development fragmenting the population,
and chemical exposure from prey pesticides.
Local adaptation is common--it often helps
an organism deal with its changing environment.
It appears such local adaptation is occurring
within cities as well.
For example, bedbug populations across the US
show genetic differences between cities.
What can we actually see in physical adaptations?
In Tucson, Arizona urban house hitches have adapted
to their sunflower seed-heavy bird- feeder based diet
Their beaks are longer and wider
than the rural cousins.
In Montpellier, France, Holy Hawksbeard plants
are producing more seeds
that disperse closer to the parent plant
due to the lack of optimal soil around the city.
Ultimately it's important to be sure
that as urban areas expand, they do so
in a way that's conducive to life that dwells within them
human or otherwise.
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Cities are putting pressure on animals' genes, from bobcats to gulls to bedbugs

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