Parallel evolution of urban-rural clines
AbstractUrbanization is the dominant trend of global land use change. The replicated nature of environmental change associated with urbanization should drive parallel evolution, yet insight into the repeatability of evolutionary processes in urban areas has been limited by a lack of multi-city studies. Here we leverage community science data on coat color in >60,000 eastern gray squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) across 43 North American cities to test for parallel clines in melanism, a genetically based trait associated with thermoregulation and crypsis in gray squirrels. We show the prevalence of melanism in these mammals was positively associated with urbanization. Urban-rural clines in melanism were strongest in the largest cities with extensive forest cover and weakest or absent in cities with warm winter temperature, where thermal selection likely limits the prevalence of melanism. Our results demonstrate that novel traits can evolve in a highly repeatable manner among urban areas, modified by factors intrinsic to individual cities, including size, land cover, and climate.