The Domestication of Biodiversity in the City

Humans shape biotic communities in cities in profound ways, from obvious changes in species composition, to less noticeable shifts in timing of breeding, predator-prey dynamics, and foraging behavior. Historically, ecologists and conservation biologists largely viewed cities through a relatively simple lens: cities remove and fragment natural habitats. Urban biotic communities are by implication deficient or damaged. There is a growing shift, however, in how human-altered landscapes are viewed and valued. Researchers and practitioners are embracing terms and approaches that increasingly situate humans as integral to positive changes in ecosystems. There are good reasons to be cautious about embracing these more anthro-centric approaches, and many are controversial. Yet, realism dictates that we contemplate the implications of a domesticated planet, one where the distribution and abundance of species become increasingly dependent on human values, decisions, and actions. Viewed through this more anthro-centric lens, I propose that cities are sources of novelty, hotspots of resource inputs (as well as resource consumption), agents of decoupling for ecological phenomena, and drivers of evolutionary change. I will examine some of the complex pathways through which humans influence biotic communities, with consequences that may ripple through food webs in previously unexpected ways. I will discuss ways in which these changes 'domesticate' nature and ideas for retaining a little bit of the wild in places where we live, work, and play. In particular, I highlight the pervasive impacts of anthropogenic resources on food webs, as well as the mechanisms that produce patterns of inequality in access to biodiversity. These emerging findings reinforce the role of interdisciplinary approaches in yielding greater insights into urban ecological dynamics compared with purely disciplinary approaches.