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Research Project
Does urbanisation lead to micro-evolutionary changes?
Funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Postdoc Philipp Sprau, Advisor: N.J. Dingemanse
Humans are increasingly impacting natural environments such as through the rapid increase in urbanization. As a consequence human disturbance can yield specific selection pressures favouring animals that rapidly adapt to changing environmental conditions. My research is aimed at testing whether highly disturbed environments (such as city-centres) impose selection favouring certain behavioural types. I use a combination of descriptive and experimental field studies to investigate how human disturbance alters patterns of selection pressures on phenotypic traits within and between individuals which will provide important insights into human-induced micro-evolutionary processes.
For further information about the project visit www.tierisches-muenchen.bio.lmu.de