Sayol, F;
Sol, D;
Pigot, AL;
(2020)
Brain Size and Life History Interact to Predict Urban Tolerance in Birds.
Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution
, 8
, Article 58. 10.3389/fevo.2020.00058.
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Abstract
Urbanization is a major driver of local biodiversity losses, but the traits that determine whether species are able to tolerate urban environments remain poorly understood. Theory suggests that a larger brain should provide higher tolerance to urbanization by enhancing behavioral flexibility to cope with novel challenges. However, assembling empirical evidence for a link between brain size and tolerance to urbanization has proven to be difficult, perhaps because the effect of the brain interacts with life history to influence persistence in urban environments. Here, we provide a global-scale assessment of the role of brain size on urban tolerance, combining quantitative estimations of urban tolerance with detailed information on brain size, life history and ecology for 629 avian species across 27 cities. Our analysis confirms the expected positive association between brain size and urban tolerance, but shows that the relationship is more complex than previously shown. While a large relative brain size generally increases urban tolerance, species with small brains can still attain high success in urban environments if they spread the risk of reproduction across multiple events (i.e., have a low brood value). These alternative strategies, although uncommon in natural conditions, seem to be favored in urban environments, fundamentally restructuring the composition of urban communities. Thus, our results support the notion that brain size mediates tolerance to urbanization, but also shows that there are alternative ways of exploiting urban environments. Our findings reconcile previous conflicting results regarding the effect of brain size on urban tolerance, and provide the basis for improved predictions of the responses of organisms to increasing urbanization over the coming decades.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Brain Size and Life History Interact to Predict Urban Tolerance in Birds |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.3389/fevo.2020.00058 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2020.00058 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2020 Sayol, Sol and Pigot. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
| Keywords: | urban ecology, anthropogenic changes, avian communities, brain mass, brood value, biodiversity, urban exploiters, urban avoiders |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences > Genetics, Evolution and Environment |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10096919 |
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