urbanization – envirobites

Thursday, April 18, 2024

Life in the City – Humans alter city habitats for plants and animals

October 5, 2020October 5, 2020 Brandi Pessman 0 Comments adaptation, cities, disturbance, urbanization

Cites are ecosystems, just like a forest, desert, and prairie are ecosystems. As human populations grow and move to urban areas, cities expand into other ecosystems. Plants and animals must adjust to the rapid changes that result. Humans are the biggest threat to organisms, but why are cities challenging environments for plants and animals? Let’s learn more about one of the largest and growing ecosystems on land… cities!

Animal behavior Cities Climate Environmental Science

Space Invaders? Exotic Bees in the Urban Landscape

August 13, 2020August 13, 2020 Jessica Espinosa 0 Comments bees, invasive species, urbanization

One up and coming target for bee conservation has been the urban landscape, as some recent findings have indicated that cities can maintain diverse bee communities. Though on the surface these findings seem promising for bee conservation, many of these studies do not actually address whether this is a positive thing for native bees. One group of scientists decided to delve further into this topic by looking at the effects of urbanization on bee species. Specifically, they wanted to find out whether exotic bees, including the European honeybee, were found more abundantly in cities and other urban areas than in rural communities and how their presence affected native bees.

Cities Environmental Science

Masters of web design – city spiders build smaller, fuller webs

March 6, 2020 Brandi Pessman 0 Comments behavioral ecology, cities, spiders, urban ecology, urbanization

European garden spiders build smaller, fuller webs in cities where there are fewer, smaller insects to eat.