DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Evolutionary Responses of Plants to Urban Environments

城市是人类环境变化最严重的地方之一。 它们比邻近的农村地区更热，更干燥，空气质量也不同，因此城市生活的生物体所经历的环境与农村地区明显不同。因此，城市环境可能与预测的未来气候条件相似。 了解植物的适应性如何使它们在城市中茁壮成长，不仅可以深入了解植物种群如何在城市环境中生存，还可以帮助我们了解未来气候对植物生长的潜在影响。一项温室研究使用了从明尼阿波利斯和圣保罗，明尼苏达州和邻近的农村地区收集的种子，结果表明，来自城市地区的植物比来自农村地区的植物生长得更快，更大。这项拟议中的研究将伴随着正在进行的操纵实验，将从其他三个城市地区采集多种植物物种的样本，（芝加哥、底特律和纽约），以确定是否存在区分城市和农村植物种群的相似生长特征套件。了解对城市环境的适应和驯化，拟议研究的重点，对城市生物多样性和保护至关重要，用于城市公园的管理和开发在城市环境中茁壮成长的植物品种。对城市植物种群的研究也为科学宣传和教育提供了一个理想的系统。许多人认为生态学是理解原始环境中的生物，进化是一个缓慢的过程，但这是不正确的，这项拟议的研究重点是理解城市环境中生态过程和进化力量之间的相互作用。这项工作正在多所高中和社区大学开展，让学生和社区成员参与了解植物种群如何应对气候变化情景，预计这些情景的特点是非生物因素的变化，类似于城市植物种群所经历的变化。

Cities are among the most heavily altered of human environments. They are hotter, drier, and differ in in air quality than neighboring rural areas and thereby city-dwelling organisms experience environments distinctly different than those experienced in rural areas. Therefore, urban environments are likely similar to predicted future climate conditions. Understanding how adaptations by plants allow them to thrive in cities will not only provide insight into how plant populations have survived in urban environments but also help us understand the potential effects of future climates on plant growth. A greenhouse study using seeds collected from Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN and neighboring rural areas revealed that plants from urban areas grow faster and larger than plants from rural areas. The proposed research, which will accompany ongoing manipulative experiments, is to sample multiple plant species from three other urban areas, (Chicago, Detroit and New York), in order to determine if there are similar suites of growth characteristics that differentiate urban from rural plant populations.Understanding adaptation and acclimation to urban environments, the focus of the proposed research, is important for urban biodiversity and conservation, for management of urban parks and for developing plant varieties that thrive in urban environments. The study of urban plant populations also provides an ideal system for scientific outreach and education. Many people think of ecology as understanding organisms in pristine environments, and evolution as a slow process, but this is not true and this proposed research focuses on understanding the interplay between ecological processes and evolutionary forces in urban environments. This work is being carried out at multiple high schools and community colleges engaging students and community members to get involved in understanding how plant populations may respond to climate change scenarios, which are expected to be characterized by shifts in abiotic factors similar to those experienced by urban plant populations.