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This article argues that the concepts of "normal" reproductive development that biologists rely on are undergirded by heterosexism, ableism, and White supremacism, even if implicitly. We illustrate our argument by critically analyzing toxicology's use of reproductive fitness, focusing on the field of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs). Toxicology both informs and is informed by fundamental evolutionary and ecological questions as well as environmental health. Throughout, biologists overwhelmingly assume that "abnormal" reproductive physiologies both are generated by EDC exposure and necessarily threaten species survival. Such assumptions unwittingly obscure fundamental scientific insights while further discriminating against queer, trans, nonbinary, and differently abled human communities. We agree that scientists should be sounding the alarm over unavoidable, unevenly distributed, highly hazardous EDC exposures-which cause metabolic dysregulation, cancer, and death-but not because gonads and genitals look different. Instead, we encourage scientists to directly confront how chemical corporations profit from innumerable, irreversible harms to ecological and societal well-being, harms that may very well have nothing to do with gonads or genitals. We close with three specific suggestions to help scientists dismantle the human hierarchies embedded in biological frameworks, toward better science and environmental justice. By refusing the oppressive social ideologies assumed by prior research, toxicological and biological scientists will offer exciting new insights into evolutionary processes and urgent, justice-centered findings for environmental health.

Current narratives suggest that urban adaptation – the adaptive evolution of organisms to cities – is pervasive across taxa and cities. However, in reviewing hundreds of studies, we find only six comprehensive examples of species adaptively evolving to urbanization. We discuss the utility and shortcomings of methods for studying urban adaptation. We then review diverse systems offering preliminary evidence for urban adaptation and outline a research program for advancing its study. Urban environments constitute diverse, interacting selective agents that test the limits of adaptation. Understanding urban adaptation therefore offers unique opportunities for addressing fundamental questions in evolutionary biology and for better conserving biodiversity in cities. However, capitalizing on these opportunities requires appropriate research methods and dissemination of accurate narratives.

Indigenous knowledge is a multilayered knowledge system that can effectively manage global ecosystem and biodiversity conservation. Conservation is an applied discipline with the goal of preserving the world’s biodiversity and ecosystems. However, settler–coloniser conservation practices often fail to fully examine how settler–coloniser epistemologies are centred at the expense of Indigenous conservation praxis. Evaluating how conservation practices outside of an Indigenous lens can become more inclusive and just is a critical area for research and reflection. We draw on our own experiences as early-career researchers working towards anticolonial, just and inclusive approaches to conservation science and practice by discussing what it means to be for a Place. We believe that a non-Indigenous conservationist who is for a Place advocates for inclusive stewardship with Indigenous Peoples and other marginalised communities to conserve species and ecosystems and the connections that bind communities to their landscapes. As an example of how settler–coloniser conservation practitioners can be for a Place, we discuss writing a policy statement in 2019 on behalf of the Society for Conservation Biology opposing the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope on the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawai‘i. We describe the thought process behind our policy statement and provide examples of other actions for conservation researchers and practitioners working to be for a Place. We aim to provide our colleagues, particularly those trained in settler–coloniser conservation practices, an opportunity to identify more just practices for the Places we aspire to conserve.

Cities are fully functioning ecosystems and are home to no-analogue communities of species that interact with each other and which are subject to novel urban stressors. As such, biodiversity can evolve in response to these new urban conditions, making urban species a moving target for conservation and management efforts. An evolving urban biodiversity necessitates integrating evolutionary insights into management for these efforts to be successful in a dynamic urban milieu. Here we present a framework for categorizing urban biodiversity from a management perspective. We then discuss a suite of example management tools and their potential evolutionary implications—both their opportunities for and potential consequence to management. Urban ecosystems are proliferating but, far from being ecological lost causes, they may provide unique insights and opportunities for biodiversity conservation. Determining how to achieve urban biodiversity priorities while managing pest species requires evolutionary thinking. Urbanization can cause rapid evolutionary responses among city-dwelling species but evolution is rarely accounted for in urban conservation efforts. Here, the authors outline a framework for integrating evolutionary principles into the management of urban biodiversity.

Plasticity-led evolution is central to evolutionary theory. Although challenging to study in nature, this process may be particularly apparent in novel environments such as cities. We document abundant evidence of plastic behavioral changes in urban animals, including learning, contextual, developmental, and transgenerational plasticities. Using behavioral drive as a conceptual framework, our analysis of notable case studies suggests that plastic behaviors, such as altered habitat use, migration, diurnal and seasonal activity, and courtship, can have faciliatory and cascading effects on urban evolution via spatial, temporal, and mate-choice mechanisms. Our findings highlight (i) the need to incorporate behavioral plasticity more formally into urban evolutionary research and (ii) the opportunity provided by urban environments to study behavioral mechanisms of plasticity-led processes.

Pond Turtle Shell Disease is an emerging infectious disease associated with the fungus Emydomyces testavorans (Emte). Here, we report the first documented case of Emte in free-ranging Californian turtles. We assayed Emte in nine Western Pond Turtles (Emys = Actinemys marmorata; WPT) and three non-native Red-eared Slider turtles (Trachemys scripta elegans; RES) from the same pond in Santa Cruz County, California. Despite several WPT exhibiting significant shell lesions, scute defects, and pliable scutes, all tested negative for Emte. However, all three RES were Emte-positive, although two of these showed no shell defects. Given all tested RES were Emte-positive, it is possible that some WPT results are false negatives, either due to assay performance or insufficient shell tissue sampling. However, our Emte results in WPT are likely true negatives, and thus our observations contrast the high prevalence of Emte and shell disease in WPT from Washington. The emergence of Emte in California poses a previously unaccounted conservation concern for imperiled WPT. Emte's presence in California is also an important opportunity to study the epidemiology and ecology of this pathogen in a contrasting environmental context to Washington state where shell disease has had pronounced conservation consequences. Given the recent discovery of Snake Fungal Disease in California and the substantial impact the amphibian chytrid fungus has had on California's amphibians, there is an urgent need to understand the spread, prevalence, and impacts of Emte and other emerging wildlife diseases in California and elsewhere.

Indigenous knowledge is a multilayered knowledge system that can effectively manage global ecosystem and biodiversity conservation. Conservation is an applied discipline with the goal of preserving the world's biodiversity and ecosystems. However, settler–coloniser conservation practices often fail to fully examine how settler–coloniser epistemologies are centred at the expense of Indigenous conservation praxis. Evaluating how conservation practices outside of an Indigenous lens can become more inclusive and just is a critical area for research and reflection. We draw on our own experiences as early-career researchers working towards anticolonial, just and inclusive approaches to conservation science and practice by discussing what it means to be for a Place. We believe that a non-Indigenous conservationist who is for a Place advocates for inclusive stewardship with Indigenous Peoples and other marginalised communities to conserve species and ecosystems and the connections that bind communities to their landscapes. As an example of how settler–coloniser conservation practitioners can be for a Place, we discuss writing a policy statement in 2019 on behalf of the Society for Conservation Biology opposing the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope on the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawai‘i. We describe the thought process behind our policy statement and provide examples of other actions for conservation researchers and practitioners working to be for a Place. We aim to provide our colleagues, particularly those trained in settler–coloniser conservation practices, an opportunity to identify more just practices for the Places we aspire to conserve.

Urban areas are dynamic ecological systems defined by interdependent biological, physical, and social components. The emergent structure and heterogeneity of urban landscapes drives biotic outcomes in these areas, and such spatial patterns are often attributed to the unequal stratification of wealth and power in human societies. Despite these patterns, few studies have effectively considered structural inequalities as drivers of ecological and evolutionary outcomes and have instead focused on indicator variables such as neighborhood wealth. In this analysis, we explicitly integrate ecology, evolution, and social processes to emphasize the relationships that bind social inequities-specifically racism-and biological change in urbanized landscapes. We draw on existing research to link racist practices, including residential segregation, to the heterogeneous patterns of flora and fauna observed by urban ecologists. In the future, urban ecology and evolution researchers must consider how systems of racial oppression affect the environmental factors that drive biological change in cities. Conceptual integration of the social and ecological sciences has amassed considerable scholarship in urban ecology over the past few decades, providing a solid foundation for incorporating environmental justice scholarship into urban ecological and evolutionary research. Such an undertaking is necessary to deconstruct urbanization's biophysical patterns and processes, inform equitable and anti-racist initiatives promoting justice in urban conservation, and strengthen community resilience to global environmental change.

Scheele et al . (Reports, 29 March 2019, p. 1459) bring needed attention to the effects of amphibian infectious disease. However, the data and methods implicating the disease chytridiomycosis in 501 amphibian species declines are deficient. Which species are affected, and how many, remains a critical unanswered question. Amphibians are imperiled; protective actions require public support and robust science.

Small ponds often survive the transition from forested to suburban land cover and provide habitat for many species, yet little is known about how suburbanization affects pond ecosystems. We surveyed 18 small ponds across a forest-to-suburban land cover gradient and compared how physical and chemical changes altered biological and ecosystem properties, such as nutrient and food web dynamics. Suburbanization decreased canopy cover, increased water temperatures, and increased periphyton chlorophyll a, but was associated with only weak increases in total nutrients. Yet, stable isotope analysis indicated that suburbanization altered nitrogen dynamics and resource use in the food web. We observed increases in δ15N in algae, biofilm, and frog larvae across the suburban gradient, indicative of wastewater intrusion. Suburbanization also shifted the energy and nutrient source of a dominant consumer (Rana sylvatica; = Lithobates sylvaticus) from leaf litter to algae. Overall, we identified cryptic changes to suburban pond ecosystems, highlighting that suburbanization can profoundly impact nutrients and food web resources. As residential land use increases globally, we may expect substantial shifts in nutrient dynamics and food web pathways.

Indigenous knowledge is a multilayered knowledge system that can effectively manage global ecosystem and biodiversity conservation. Conservation is an applied discipline with the goal of preserving the world's biodiversity and ecosystems. However, settler–coloniser conservation practices often fail to fully examine how settler–coloniser epistemologies are centred at the expense of Indigenous conservation praxis. Evaluating how conservation practices outside of an Indigenous lens can become more inclusive and just is a critical area for research and reflection. We draw on our own experiences as early-career researchers working towards anticolonial, just and inclusive approaches to conservation science and practice by discussing what it means to be for a Place. We believe that a non-Indigenous conservationist who is for a Place advocates for inclusive stewardship with Indigenous Peoples and other marginalised communities to conserve species and ecosystems and the connections that bind communities to their landscapes. As an example of how settler–coloniser conservation practitioners can be for a Place, we discuss writing a policy statement in 2019 on behalf of the Society for Conservation Biology opposing the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope on the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawai‘i. We describe the thought process behind our policy statement and provide examples of other actions for conservation researchers and practitioners working to be for a Place. We aim to provide our colleagues, particularly those trained in settler–coloniser conservation practices, an opportunity to identify more just practices for the Places we aspire to conserve.

Myriad natural and anthropogenic chemicals alter aquatic vertebrate sex ratios, with implications for population dynamics. Despite 22 million metric tons of salt applied to US roads annually, with much of it entering aquatic environments, it is unknown whether salt impacts sex ratios. Moreover, changes in forest composition co-occur with increased road salt application, dramatically changing ecosystems. We explore how road salt (sodium chloride) and two leaf litter types might influence amphibian development. By examining wood frog (Rana sylvatica = Lithobates sylvaticus) metamorphs reared with different combinations of salt (114 and 867 mg Cl·L−1) and litter species (none, maple (Acer rubrum), oak (Quercus spp.)), we show that salt masculinizes tadpole sex ratios, whereas oak, but not maple, litter feminizes populations. Road salt addition eliminates sexual dimorphism in oak-reared tadpoles, but enhances sexual size dimorphisms in maple-reared tadpoles, producing larger females. We are the first to show that road salt and native tree leaf litter manipulates vertebrate sex ratios and sex-specific development. Human land use might therefore influence vertebrate development through direct effects of contamination and indirect effects of altered botanical composition.

The red-eared slider turtle (Trachemys scripta elegans; RES) is often considered one of the world’s most invasive species. Results from laboratory and mesocosm experiments suggest that introduced RES outcompete native turtles for key ecological resources, but such experiments can overestimate the strength of competition. We report on the first field experiment with a wild turtle community, involving introduced RES and a declining native species of conservation concern, the western pond turtle (Emys marmorata; WPT). Using a before/after experimental design, we show that after removing most of an introduced RES population, the remaining RES dramatically shifted their spatial basking distribution in a manner consistent with strong intraspecific competition. WPT also altered their spatial basking distribution after the RES removal, but in ways inconsistent with strong interspecific competition. However, we documented reduced levels of WPT basking post-removal, which may reflect a behavioral shift attributable to the lower density of the turtle community. WPT body condition also increased after we removed RES, consistent with either indirect or direct competition between WPT and RES and providing the first evidence that RES can compete with a native turtle in the wild. We conclude that the negative impacts on WPT basking by RES in natural contexts are more limited than suggested by experiments with captive turtles, although wild WPT do appear to compete for food with introduced RES. Our results highlight the importance of manipulative field experiments when studying biological invasions, and the potential value of RES removal as a management strategy for WPT.

Same-sex sexual behaviour (SSB) has been recorded in over 1,500 animal species with a widespread distribution across most major clades. Evolutionary biologists have long sought to uncover the adaptive origins of 'homosexual behaviour' in an attempt to resolve this apparent Darwinian paradox: how has SSB repeatedly evolved and persisted despite its presumed fitness costs? This question implicitly assumes that 'heterosexual' or exclusive different-sex sexual behaviour (DSB) is the baseline condition for animals, from which SSB has evolved. We question the idea that SSB necessarily presents an evolutionary conundrum, and suggest that the literature includes unchecked assumptions regarding the costs, benefits and origins of SSB. Instead, we offer an alternative null hypothesis for the evolutionary origin of SSB that, through a subtle shift in perspective, moves away from the expectation that the origin and maintenance of SSB is a problem in need of a solution. We argue that the frequently implicit assumption of DSB as ancestral has not been rigorously examined, and instead hypothesize an ancestral condition of indiscriminate sexual behaviours directed towards all sexes. By shifting the lens through which we study animal sexual behaviour, we can more fruitfully examine the evolutionary history of diverse sexual strategies.

The red-eared slider turtle (Trachemys scripta elegans; RES) is one of the world’s most invasive species. Native to the central United States, RES are now widely established in freshwater habitats across the globe, largely due to release of unwanted pets. Laboratory and mesocosm experiments suggest that introduced RES are competitively dominant to native turtles, but such competition remains untested in the wild. Here, we experimentally removed introduced RES to test whether they compete for critical basking habitat with native, threatened western pond turtles (Emys marmorata; WPT), a species being considered for listing under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Following removal, we found that both the remaining RES as well as WPT altered their basking distribution but in a manner inconsistent with strong interspecific competition. However, these findings suggest strong intraspecific competition for basking sites amongst RES and that interspecific competition between WPT and introduced RES likely occurs at higher RES densities. Our works suggests RES influence the behavior of native species in the wild and indicates that RES removal may be most beneficial at high RES densities. This experiment highlights the importance of considering experimental venue when evaluating competition between native and non-native species and should encourage conservation biologists to treat removal efforts as experiments.

All amphibian species are known to have genetic sex determination. However, a variety of environmental conditions can moderate sexual differentiation, in some cases leading to sex reversal and skewed sex ratios. While there has been a recent focus on chemically-induced sex reversal in amphibians, temperature can also influence sexual differentiation. Building upon a classic 1929 study by Emil Witschi, we assessed temperature-mediated sex reversal. Witschi found that the wood frog sex ratio is 100% male at a high temperature (32°C) compared to a 50:50 sex ratio at 20°C. This pattern is consistent with multiple models of environmentally mediated sexual differentiation in vertebrates. To better understand thermally mediated sex reversal, we raised wood frogs at temperature increments of ∼1°C between 19 and 34°C. Mirroring earlier findings, wood frog metamorph sex ratios are indistinguishable from 50:50 at the lowest temperature and entirely male at the highest temperatures. In between, sex ratios become increasingly male-dominated as temperatures increase, implying a steadily increasing tendency toward female-to-male sex reversal in warmer environments. There was no evidence of a threshold temperature effect on reversal patterns. We also show that, compared to males, females metamorphose larger and later in cooler conditions but earlier and smaller under warmer conditions. While the ecological relevance in this species is unknown, these results conform to the Charnov-Bull model of sex determination (in which female-to-male sex reversal can increase fitness to genetic females at higher temperatures), suggesting the system would reward further study.

An important contribution to infectious disease emergence in wildlife is environmental degradation driven by pollution, habitat fragmentation, and eutrophication. Amphibians are a wildlife group that is particularly sensitive to land use change, infectious diseases, and their interactions. Residential suburban land use is now a dominant, and increasing, form of land cover in the USA and globally, contributing to increased pollutant and nutrient loading in freshwater systems. We examined how suburbanization affects the infection of green frog (Rana clamitans) tadpoles and metamorphs by parasitic flatworms (Echinostoma spp.) through the alteration of landscapes surrounding ponds and concomitant changes in water quality. Using sixteen small ponds along a forest-suburban land use gradient, we assessed how the extent of suburban land use surrounding ponds influenced echinostome infection in both primary snail and secondary frog hosts. Our results show that the degree of suburbanization and concurrent chemical loading are positively associated with the presence and burden of echinostome infection in both host populations. This work contributes to a broader understanding of how land use mediates wildlife parasitism and shows how human activities at the household scale can have similar consequences for wildlife health as seemingly more intensive land uses like agriculture or urbanization.

Research on endocrine disruption in frog populations, such as shifts in sex ratios and feminization of males, has predominantly focused on agricultural pesticides. Recent evidence suggests that suburban landscapes harbor amphibian populations exhibiting similar levels of endocrine disruption; however the endocrine disrupting chemical (EDC) sources are unknown. Here, we show that sex ratios of metamorphosing frogs become increasingly female-dominated along a suburbanization gradient. We further show that suburban ponds are frequently contaminated by the classical estrogen estrone and a variety of EDCs produced by plants (phytoestrogens), and that the diversity of organic EDCs is correlated with the extent of developed land use and cultivated lawn and gardens around a pond. Our work also raises the possibility that trace-element contamination associated with human land use around suburban ponds may be contributing to the estrogenic load within suburban freshwaters and constitutes another source of estrogenic exposure for wildlife. These data suggest novel, unexplored pathways of EDC contamination in human-altered environments. In particular, we propose that vegetation changes associated with suburban neighborhoods (e.g., from forests to lawns and ornamental plants) increase the distribution of phytoestrogens in surface waters. The result of frog sex ratios varying as a function of human land use implicates a role for environmental modulation of sexual differentiation in amphibians, which are assumed to only have genetic sex determination. Overall, we show that endocrine disruption is widespread in suburban frog populations and that the causes are likely diverse.

Sex-determining mechanisms change repeatedly throughout evolution, and it is difficult to track this continual process. The Japanese soil-frog Glandirana rugosa is a remarkable evolutionary witness to the ongoing process of the evolution of sex-determining modes. The two geographic groups, designated XY and Neo-ZW, have homologous sex chromosomes, yet display opposite types of sex chromosomes, XX-XY and ZZ-ZW, respectively. These two groups are sympatric at the edges of their respective ranges in Central Japan. In this study, we discovered molecular evidence that the eastern part of the Neo-ZW group (Neo-ZW2 subgroup), which is found near the sympatric area, shares mitochondrial haplotypes with the XY group. By analysing single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) loci, we have also discovered that the representative nuclear genome of the Neo-ZW2 subgroup shares allele clusters with both the XY group and another part of the Neo-ZW group (Neo-ZW1 subgroup), indicating a hybrid origin of the Neo-ZW2. Further analysis of sex-linked SNP loci revealed that the alleles on the W chromosomes of the Neo-ZW2 were derived mostly from X chromosomes, while alleles on the Z chromosomes originated from the Z chromosomes of the Neo-ZW1 subgroup and partly from the Y chromosomes of the XY group. Our study revealed that admixture of the two opposite sex-chromosome systems reconstructed a female heterogametic system by recycling the X chromosomes into new W chromosomes. This work offers an illustrative example of how de novo sex-chromosome systems can arise by recycling material from ancestral sex chromosomes.

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Indiana, PA USA IRD, Dakar, Senegal State Museum Nat Hist Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany Univ Toulouse III Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France Univ Ghent, Ghent, Belgium Univ Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium Karlsruhe Inst Technol, Karlsruhe, Germany Ctr Cellular & Mol Biol, Hyderabad, India Univ Fed ABC, Santo Andre, Brazil Yale Peabody Museum Nat Hist, New Haven, CT USA Univ Innsbruck, Mondsee, Austria Bethune Cookman Univ, Daytona Beach, FL USA Natl Museum Nat & Sci, Tokyo, Japan Zool Garten Koln, Cologne, Germany Univ Estadual Paulista, Botucatu, SP, Brazil Univ Estadual Paulista, Sao Vicente, Brazil Univ Estadual Paulista, Rio Claro, Brazil Univ Estadual Paulista, Sao Jose Do Rio Preto, Brazil Univ Estadual Paulista, Assis, Brazil

In vertebrates, sex determination occurs along a continuum from strictly genotypic (GSD), where sex is entirely guided by genes, to strictly environmental (ESD), where rearing conditions, like temperature, determine phenotypic sex. Along this continuum are taxa which have combined genetic and environmental contributions to sex determination (GSD + EE), where some individuals experience environmental effects which cause them to sex reverse and develop their phenotypic sex opposite their genotypic sex. Amphibians are often assumed to be strictly GSD with sex reversal typically considered abnormal. Despite calls to understand the relative natural and anthropogenic causes of amphibian sex reversal, sex reversal has not been closely studied across populations of any wild amphibian, particularly in contrasting environmental conditions. Here, we use sex-linked molecular markers to discover sex reversal in wild populations of green frogs (Rana clamitans) inhabiting ponds in either undeveloped, forested landscapes or in suburban neighborhoods. Our work here begins to suggest that sex reversal may be common within and across green frog populations, occurring in 12 of 16 populations and with frequencies of 2–16% of individuals sampled within populations. Additionally, our results also suggest that intersex phenotypic males and sex reversal are not correlated with each other and are also not correlated with suburban land use. While sex reversal and intersex are often considered aberrant responses to human activities and associated pollution, we found no such associations here. Our data perhaps begin to suggest that, relative to what is often suggested, sex reversal may be a relatively natural process in amphibians. Future research should focus on assessing interactions between genes and the environment to understand the molecular and exogenous basis of sex determination in green frogs and in other amphibians.

We quantified basking site usage by native western pond turtles (Emys [ = Actinemys] marmorata) and introduced red-eared sliders (Trachemys scripta elegans) in an urbanized waterway. A lower frequency of human disturbance, steeper slopes, shallower water adjacent to basking sites, and a concrete substrate were all associated with a higher abundance of native threatened pond turtles relative to introduced sliders. These differences suggest new habitat management practices that could favor native pond turtles in the face of competition from invasive sliders.

Living plants produce a diversity of chemicals that share structural and functional properties with vertebrate hormones. Wildlife species interact with these chemicals either through consumption of plant materials or aquatic exposure. Accumulating evidence shows that exposure to these hormonally active phytochemicals (HAPs) often has consequences for behavior, physiology, and fecundity. These fitness effects suggest there is potential for an evolutionary response by vertebrates to HAPs. Here, we explore the toxicological HAP–vertebrate relationship in an evolutionary framework and discuss the potential for vertebrates to adapt to or even co‐opt the effects of plant‐derived chemicals that influence fitness. We lay out several hypotheses about HAPs and provide a path forward to test whether plant‐derived chemicals influence vertebrate reproduction and evolution. Studies of phytochemicals with direct impacts on vertebrate reproduction provide an obvious and compelling system for studying evolutionary toxicology. Furthermore, an understanding of whether animal populations evolve in response to HAPs could provide insightful context for the study of rapid evolution and how animals cope with chemical agents in the environment.

Suburban neighborhoods are a dominant type of human land use. Many housing regions globally rely on septic systems, rather than sanitary sewers, for wastewater management. There is evidence that septic systems may contaminate waterbodies more than sewer lines. There is also mounting evidence that human activities contaminate waterways with endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), which alter wildlife sexual development. While endocrine disruption is often associated with intense activities such as agriculture or wastewater treatment plant discharges, recent evidence indicates that endocrine disruption is pervasive in frogs from suburban neighborhoods. In conjunction with other putative EDC sources, one hypothesis is that wastewater is contaminating suburban waterways with EDCs derived from pharmaceuticals or personal care products. Here, we measure estradiol (E2) in metamorphosing green frogs (Rana clamitans) from forested ponds and suburban ponds adjacent to either septic tanks or sanitary sewers. We show that E2 is highest in male frogs from septic neighborhoods and that E2 concentrations are significantly lower in male frogs from forested ponds and from ponds near sewers. These results indicate that septic tanks may be contaminating aquatic ecosystems differently than sewer lines. This pattern contrasts prior work showing no difference in EDC contamination or morphological endocrine disruption between septic and sewer neighborhoods, implying that suburbanization may have varying effects at multiple biological scales like physiology and anatomy.

Suburban neighborhoods are rapidly spreading globally. As such, there is an increasing need to study the environmental and ecological effects of suburbanization. At large spatial extents, from county-level to global, remote sensing-derived land cover data, such as the National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD), have yielded insight into patterns of urbanization and concomitant large-scale ecological patterns in response. However, the components of suburban land cover (houses, yards, etc.) are dispersed throughout the landscape at a finer scale than the relatively coarse grain size (30m pixels) of NLCD may be able to detect. Our understanding of ecological processes in heterogeneous landscapes is reliant upon the accuracy and resolution of our measurements as well as the scale at which we measure the landscape. Analyses of ecological processes along suburban gradients are restricted by the currently available data. As ecologists are becoming increasingly interested in describing phenomena at spatial extents as small as individual households, we need higher-resolution landscape measurements. Here, I describe a simple method of translating the components of suburban landscapes into finer-grain, local land cover (LLC) data in GIS. Using both LLC and NLCD, I compare the suburban matrix surrounding ponds occupied by two different frog species. I illustrate large discrepancies in Forest, Yard, and Developed land cover estimates between LLC and NLCD, leading to markedly different interpretations of suburban landscape composition. NLCD, relative to LLC, estimates lower proportions of forest cover and higher proportions of anthropogenic land covers in general. These two land cover datasets provide surprisingly different descriptions of the suburban landscapes, potentially affecting our understanding of how organisms respond to an increasingly suburban world. LLC provides a free and detailed fine-grain depiction of the components of suburban neighborhoods and will allow ecologists to better explore heterogeneous suburban landscapes at multiple spatial scales.

Urban ecologists have demonstrated that cities are functioning ecosystems. It follows then that species living in these contexts should participate in and experience the same suite of biological processes, including evolution, that have occupied scientists for centuries in more “natural” contexts. In fact, urban ecosystems with myriad novel contexts, pressures, and species rosters provide unprecedentedly potent evolutionary stimuli. Here, we present the case for studying adaptive evolution in urban settings. We then review and synthesize techniques into a coherent approach for studying adaptive evolution in urban settings that combines observations of phenotypic divergence, measurements of fitness benefits of novel genetically based phenotypes, and experimental manipulations of potential drivers of adaptation. We believe that studying evolution in urban contexts can provide insights into fundamental evolutionary biology questions on rate, direction, and repeatability of evolution, and may inform species and ecosystem service conservation efforts.

We are increasingly realizing that diverse human activities are associated with endocrine disruption in wildlife populations. Most field research on endocrine disruption tends to narrowly target particular endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) and contaminant sources as the dominant culprit of observed endocrine disruption. Recently, we and our colleagues assessed patterns of endocrine disruption in metamorphosing frogs in ponds along a forest-suburban land use gradient. In conjunction, we assayed for a diversity of putative of EDCs from an array of possible sources. We found that endocrine disruption in suburban frog populations was associated with a cocktail of different EDCs including classical estrogens, phytoestrogens, and metalloestrogens. These results indicate that endocrine disruption in suburban frogs is likely to be the product of multiple chemicals and sources. Our findings have implications for other systems where endocrine disruption is attributed to a limited set of contaminants or ...

Background The extent to which sex reversal is associated with transitions in sex determining systems (XX-XY, ZZ-ZW, etc.) or abnormal sexual differentiation is predominantly unexplored in amphibians. This is in large part because most amphibian taxa have homomorphic sex chromosomes, which has traditionally made it challenging to identify discordance between phenotypic and genetic sex in amphibians, despite all amphibians having a genetic component to sex determination. Recent advances in molecular techniques such as genome complexity reduction and high throughput sequencing present a valuable avenue for furthering our understanding of sex determination in amphibians and other taxa with homomorphic sex chromosomes like many fish and reptiles. Results We use DArTseq as a novel approach to identify sex-linked markers in the North American green frog (Rana clamitans melanota) using lab-reared tadpoles as well as wild-caught adults from seven ponds either in undeveloped, forested habitats or suburban ponds known to be subject to contamination by anthropogenic chemicals. The DArTseq methodology identified 13 sex-linked SNP loci and eight presence-absence loci associated with males, indicating an XX-XY system. Both alleles from a single locus show partial high sequence homology to Dmrt1, a gene linked to sex determination and differentiation throughout Metazoa. Two other loci have sequence similarities to regions of the chimpanzee and human X-chromosome as well as the chicken Z-chromosome. Several loci also show geographic variation in sex-linkage, possibly indicating sex chromosome recombination. While all loci are statistically sex-linked, they show varying degrees of female heterozygosity and male homozygosity, providing further evidence that some markers are on regions of the sex chromosomes undergoing higher rates of recombination and therefore further apart from the putative sex determining locus. Conclusion The ease of the DArTseq platform provides a useful avenue for future research on sex reversal and sex chromosome evolution in vertebrates, particularly for non-model species with homomorphic or cryptic or nascent sex chromosomes. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12864-016-3209-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Cities are uniquely complex systems regulated by interactions and feedbacks between nature and human society. Characteristics of human society-including culture, economics, technology and politics-underlie social patterns and activity, creating a heterogeneous environment that can influence and be influenced by both ecological and evolutionary processes. Increasing research on urban ecology and evolutionary biology has coincided with growing interest in eco-evolutionary dynamics, which encompasses the interactions and reciprocal feedbacks between evolution and ecology. Research on both urban evolutionary biology and eco-evolutionary dynamics frequently focuses on contemporary evolution of species that have potentially substantial ecological-and even social-significance. Still, little work fully integrates urban evolutionary biology and eco-evolutionary dynamics, and rarely do researchers in either of these fields fully consider the role of human social patterns and processes. Because cities are fundamentally regulated by human activities, are inherently interconnected and are frequently undergoing social and economic transformation, they represent an opportunity for ecologists and evolutionary biologists to study urban "socio-eco-evolutionary dynamics." Through this new framework, we encourage researchers of urban ecology and evolution to fully integrate human social drivers and feedbacks to increase understanding and conservation of ecosystems, their functions and their contributions to people within and outside cities. ispartof: EVOLUTIONARY APPLICATIONS vol:14 issue:1 pages:248-267 ispartof: location:England status: published