Urban and rural birds: genetic differentiation and the process of urbanisation.

城市地区往往被认为对生物多样性不太重要，保护工作主要针对农村生境。然而，城市栖息地被许多物种占据，其中一些物种的生活密度高于其传统的农村栖息地。尽管城市环境对野生动物具有潜在的重要性，但我们对城市生态学的了解却少得惊人;此外，我们对一个物种从农村物种过渡到城市物种的过程知之甚少。这个项目的目的是调查一种典型的城市鸟类，黑鸟，是如何成为欧洲大部分城镇和城市中如此熟悉的物种的。第一个目标将是使用历史记录来详细追踪黑鸟在欧洲各地城市地区的殖民地，从1820年德国的最早记录到今天，当时东北和东欧的城市仍处于殖民过程中。第二个目标是从配对的城市和农村样本中获得黑鹂的DNA样本，沿着一条从最早的殖民地地区到目前正在发生城市占领的地区的横断面;然后，我们将通过测量城市和农村栖息地中黑鹂种群的遗传相似性来测试城市化过程中的替代理论。这些分析的结果将使我们能够确定是否城市黑鸟：（一）是简单的农村黑鸟，学会了利用城市环境，（二）有多个起源，适应了城市栖息地从当地农村人口，（三）有一个单一的起源，随后传播到其他城市地区的城市适应黑鸟从一个城市到另一个城市在欧洲。第三个目标是调查城市黑鹂是否与农村黑鹂在形态、饮食或蜱虫、虱子和血液寄生虫负担方面存在差异。城市和农村人口之间的差异将进行评估，以确定是否有选择性的压力对黑鸟不同的栖息地之间的一贯。

Urban areas are often regarded as being of little importance for biodiversity, conservation effort instead being directed at rural habitats. However, urban habitats are occupied by many species, some of which live at higher density than in their traditional rural habitat. Despite the potential importance of the urban environment for wildlife, our knowledge of urban ecology is surprisingly poor; furthermore, we know little of the process through which a species makes the transition from being a rural species to an urban one. The aim of this project is to investigate how a typical urban bird, the blackbird, has become such a familiar species in towns and cities across much of Europe. The first objective will be to use historical records to trace in detail the blackbird's colonisation of urban areas across Europe since the earliest records in Germany in 1820 to the present day, when cities in NE and E Europe are still in the process of being colonised. The second objective is to obtain DNA samples from blackbirds in paired urban and rural samples along a transect from the earliest areas of colonisation to areas where urban occupation is currently occurring; we will then test alternative theories for the process of urbanisation by measuring the genetic similarity of blackbird populations in urban and rural habitats. Results of these analyses will enable us to determine whether urban blackbirds: (i) are simply rural blackbirds that have learnt to exploit the urban environment, (ii) have multiple origins, having adapted to the urban habitat from local rural populations, (iii) have a single origin, with subsequent spread into other urban areas by the dispersal of urban-adapted blackbirds from one city to another across Europe. The third objective is to investigate whether urban blackbirds differ from rural ones in either their morphology, their diet or their burdens of ticks, lice and blood parasites. Differences between urban and rural populations will be assessed in order to determine whether the selective pressures operating on blackbirds differ consistently between habitats.