Abstract
Urbanization is one of the major causes of the destruction of natural habitats in the world. Cities are urban heat islands and can thus significantly influence populations of plants and animals. The research project SPEEDY investigated the effects of urbanization in northern Belgium with a nested sampling design at local and landscape scales for a variety of organisms. Here, we tested the effects of urbanization on non-marine ostracod communities, sampling 81 small pools in three urbanization categories, as defined by percentage built up cover (low, intermediate, high). We identified 17 ostracod species, together occurring in 60 of the 81 sampled pools. We found that urbanization per se had no significant effect on ostracod communities. Of all the measured local factors, ammonium and total phosphorus concentrations had a significant effect on the community structure. In contrast, water temperature had no significant effect, most likely because the ostracod species found in northern Belgium in the present survey mostly have wide temperature tolerances.
Highlights
Man has influenced natural environments for thousands of years
Of all the measured local factors, ammonium and total phosphorus concentrations had a significant effect on the community structure
Water temperature had no significant effect, most likely because the ostracod species found in northern Belgium in the present survey mostly have wide temperature tolerances
Summary
Man has influenced natural environments for thousands of years. During the last centuries and decades, urbanization has become one of the major drivers of evolution and adaptation for natural animal andBelg. Animal and plant populations in urbanized areas have shown a broad range of adaptive responses concerning behaviour, morphology and physiology (reviewed by Alberti 2015 and Donihue & Lambert 2015). The importance of urbanization as an evolutionary driver is expected to further increase over the decades, given that more than two-thirds of the global human population will live in cities within the 30 years (United Nations 2018) and that the effects of urbanization extend far beyond city boundaries (Bradley & Altizer 2007). Investigating the effect of urbanization on different ecosystems and animal and plant species is essential to understand the role of humans in eco-evolutionary dynamics of ecosystems and communities, and to develop sustainable management strategies for cities (Lambert & Donihue 2020) and their natural populations in an increasingly urbanized world
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