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Does Urbanization Trigger Plant Evolution?
The Asiatic dayflower evolved distinct traits within about 60 years due to urban factors like heat islands and soil acidity, researchers found in the Keihanshin megacity.
- Recently, Kobe University researchers found the Asiatic dayflower shows distinct, inheritable trait differences across farmlands, parks, and roadsides in the Keihanshin megacity, publishing results in the Journal of Ecology.
- Urbanization since the 1970s altered habitats by accelerating growth about 60 years ago, with researchers identifying urban heat island effect, urban shading and altered soil chemistry as key drivers.
- Adaptations emerged within approximately 60 years as the team excluded founder effect and genetic drift, linking traits to rapid evolution driven by about 8°C higher ground surface temperature.
- The study reframes cities as sites of ongoing evolution, positioning urban environments as arenas for rapid change with implications for biodiversity and urban planners and land managers in Keihanshin; future cultivation experiments and DNA analyses will test trait benefits and genetic embedding.
- Creeping woodsorrel research showed repeated urban adaptations, as genome-wide analyses indicate red-leaf variants evolved multiple times from ancestral green plants under heat stress.
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Total News Sources16
Leaning Left1Leaning Right4Center5Last UpdatedBias Distribution50% Center
Bias Distribution
- 50% of the sources are Center
50% Center
C 50%
R 40%
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