Epigenetics and the city: non‐parallel DNA methylation modifications across pairs of urban‐rural Great tit populations.

With the continuous advancement of urban-rural integration, the scale of urban construction continues to expand, and a "transitional community" between the city and the countryside appears in response. The simple transformation of countryside from a traditional village form to a modern community is also accompanied by some contradictions and difficulties in structural transformation. In the discussion of "transitional community" governance, this paper analyzes the structure of transitional community under the premise of "meta-governance" theory, and proposes corresponding countermeasures to the problems of "transitional community" under the background of modern society.

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Epigenetic mediation of the onset of reproduction in a songbird

10.1101/2020.02.01.929968 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Melanie Lindner ◽

Veronika N. Laine ◽

Irene Verhagen ◽

Heidi M. Viitaniemi ◽

Marcel E. Visser ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Dna Methylation ◽

Phenotypic Plasticity ◽

Regulatory Region ◽

Natural Populations ◽

Parus Major ◽

Great Tit ◽

Egg Laying ◽

Avian Reproduction ◽

Directional Variation

ABSTRACTClimate change significantly impacts natural populations, particularly phenology traits, like the seasonal onset of reproduction in birds. This impact is mainly via plastic responses in phenology traits to changes in the environment, but the molecular mechanism mediating this plasticity remains elusive. Epigenetic modifications can mediate plasticity and consequently constitute promising candidates for mediating phenology traits. Here, we used genome-wide DNA methylation profiles of individual great tit (Parus major) females that we blood sampled repeatedly throughout the breeding season. We demonstrate rapid and directional variation in DNA methylation within the regulatory region of genes known to play key roles in avian reproduction that are in line with observed changes in gene expression in chickens. Our findings provide an important step towards unraveling the molecular mechanism mediating a key life history trait, an essential knowledge-gap for understanding how natural populations may cope with future climate change.IMPACT SUMMARYNatural populations are increasingly challenged by changing environmental conditions like global increases in temperature. A key way for species to adapt to global warming is via phenotypic plasticity, i.e. the ability to adjust the expression of traits to the environment. We, however, know little about how the environment can interact with an organism’s genetic make-up to shape its trait value. Epigenetic marks are known to vary with the environment and can modulate the expression of traits without any change in the genetic make-up and therefore have the potential to mediate phenotypic plasticity.To study the role of epigenetics for phenotypic plasticity, we here focus on the great tit (Parus major), a species that is strongly affected by global warming and plastic for temperature in an essential phenology trait, the seasonal onset of egg laying. As a first step, we investigated whether great tit females show within-individual and short-term variation in DNA methylation that corresponds to changes in the reproductive state of females. We therefore housed breeding pairs in climate-controlled aviaries to blood sample each female repeatedly throughout the breeding season and used these repeated samples for methylation profiling.We found rapid and directional variation in DNA methylation at the time females prepared to initiate egg laying that is located within the regulatory region of genes that have previously described functions for avian reproduction. Although future work is needed to establish a causal link between the observed temporal variation in DNA methylation and the onset of reproduction in female great tits, our work highlights the potential role for epigenetic modifications in mediating an essential phenology trait that is sensitive to temperatures.

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Activity density of carabid beetles along an urbanisation gradient

Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae ◽

10.17109/azh.66.suppl.21.2020 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 66 (Suppl.) ◽

pp. 21-36

Author(s):

Simone Fattorini ◽

Cristina Mantoni ◽

Davide Bergamaschi ◽

Lorenzo Fortini ◽

Francisco J. Sánchez ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis ◽

Urban Environments ◽

Carabid Beetles ◽

City Centre ◽

Intermediate Disturbance ◽

Rural Environments ◽

Activity Density ◽

Urban Rural ◽

The Impact ◽

The City

Several works have investigated the impact of urbanisation on carabid activity density using urban-rural gradients. Such works compared activity density recorded from green spaces located in different parts of a city and assigned to categories of increasing urban intensity, which poses two problems: (1) since the gradient is divided into categories, it is impossible to model continuous variations in biotic responses, and (2) sites representative of different urbanisation levels are not true segments of the same ecological continuum. To surpass these problems, we modelled variations in carabid activity density along an urban-rural transect within a single green space extending from the city centre of Rome to rural environments. Carabids were sampled by pitfall traps from sites distributed along the entire gradient. We used breakpoint regressions to model how (1) carabid activity density, (2) carabids/beetles ratio, (3) carabids/insects ratio and (3) carabids/arthropods ratio varied along the gradient. As already observed for various organisms in urban environments, we found that activity density of carabids and their contribution to the abundance of beetles, insects and arthropods, peaked in the middle of the gradient. This supports the intermediate disturbance hypothesis, according to which moderate urbanisation may favour diversity by increasing habitat heterogeneity.

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Urban-Rural Synergy Between Housing Spatial Patterns and Landscape

Advances in Civil and Industrial Engineering - Handbook of Research on Urban-Rural Synergy Development Through Housing, Landscape, and Tourism ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-9932-6.ch006 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 115-137

Author(s):

Ana Nikezić ◽

Jelena Ristić Trajković ◽

Aleksandra Milovanović

Keyword(s):

Landscape Ecology ◽

Spatial Patterns ◽

Metropolitan Area ◽

Natural Environment ◽

Architectural Design ◽

Future Perspective ◽

Urban Rural ◽

Housing Typology ◽

The City ◽

Morphological System

The morphogenesis of the urban territory and its contact with the non-urbanized, natural environment of the wider metropolitan area distinguish issues of the synergy between landscape and spatial patterns in order to achieve their balance, optimization, and harmony. This chapter highlights the conceptual framework of landscape ecology as linking to place-based design approach for studying the synergy of landscape and housing spatial patterns in order to improve their integration in future perspective. The territory of the city of Belgrade is recognized as a specific spatial-morphological system that is a consequence of the urban-rural synergy between socialist housing settlements and environmental processes. The chapter points at the environmental and functional values of nature with a particular focus on housing typology in the process of urban planning and architectural design.

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Regenerative Food Systems to Restore Urban-Rural Relationships: Insights from the Concepción Metropolitan Area Foodshed (Chile)

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su11102892 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (10) ◽

pp. 2892 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ana Zazo-Moratalla ◽

Isidora Troncoso-González ◽

Andrés Moreira-Muñoz

Keyword(s):

Metropolitan Area ◽

Food Systems ◽

Metropolitan Areas ◽

Local Food Systems ◽

Food Traceability ◽

Methodological Tool ◽

Urban Rural ◽

Key Aspects ◽

The City ◽

Shed Light

Cities, in recent years, have seen their functional and metabolic relationships with their agrarian hinterland being either broken off completely or substantially damaged. Within this context, Local Food Systems (LFS) can play a key role in restoring the supply relationships under regenerative assumptions. This paper analyses LFS within the Concepción Metropolitan Area (CMA) as a representative case of Metropolitan Areas in Chile. The aim of the paper is to evaluate whether LFS are regenerating sustainable rural-urban relationships, and to accomplish this goal, foodsheds have been used as a methodological tool to both characterise and represent food traceability. For this purpose, three quantitative foodshed indicators have been applied and three qualitative spatial analytical categories of the Regenerative Food Systems (RFS) defined to decode the behaviour of LFS in the CMA. The proposed method has been successful as an initial exploratory attempt to characterize the regenerative potential of RFS. The results highlight that LFS in the CMA are certainly restoring relationships between the city and its surrounding farmland by establishing new and renewed supply linkages. Further, the application of this method has shed light on some key aspects that show how an LFS is being converted into a potential RFS.

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Transfer of Development Rights as Incentives for Regeneration of Illegal Settlements

Advanced Engineering Forum ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/aef.11.639 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 11 ◽

pp. 639-646 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Nico Calavita ◽

Francesco Calabrò ◽

Lucia Della Spina

Keyword(s):

Public And Private ◽

The Public ◽

Multiple Dimensions ◽

Urban Rural ◽

Development Rights ◽

Urban Complex ◽

Private Actors ◽

The City ◽

Original Approach

In Italy, southern cities are often characterized by widespread phenomena of illegal settlements, that have resulted among other things in a worsening of the quality of life of the urban-rural interface, and the decline of the considerable architectural interest of the entire city. .The goal of this paper is to propose an approach that would help requalify what is already built, to make the best of what has been realized by focusing on the quality and liveability of the city. This approach is based on a particular methodology based on the promotion of Urban Complex Programs (PUC), which provide a system of development rights resulting from the demolition of unfinished illegal settlements . The benefits of this approach are many, including improvements in efficiencies and safety, meeting demands of environmental protection and reducing consumption of energy, responding to the highest standards of protection and seismic risk prevention. They can be obtained only on one condition: that they are based on a system of collective and public conveniences in accordance with the principle of sustainability in multiple dimensions (environmental, cultural, technological, political, institutional, social and economic). But for this approach to be viable it needs also to be convenient for the private actors as well. With this paper we hope to provide first an original approach that can improve the conditions of cities burdened with the problems of illegal settlements that is both sustainable and convenient and, second, an instrument that can provide information for both the public and private sectors on the fairness of the procedure and their mutual interest in pursuing this approach.

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Communities of small mammals (Soricomorpha, Rodentia) in urbanized environment

Biologia ◽

10.1515/biolog-2015-0088 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 70 (6) ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Peter Klimant ◽

Ivan Baláž ◽

Zuzana Krumpálová

Keyword(s):

Small Mammals ◽

Peripheral Zone ◽

Clethrionomys Glareolus ◽

City Centre ◽

Mus Spicilegus ◽

Urban Rural ◽

Urban Conditions ◽

Sorex Minutus ◽

The Impact ◽

The City

AbstractThe study is focused on analyses of the impact of urbanized environment on the occurrence and structure of small mammals that are important with regard to transmission of diseases to man and domestic animals. The city of Nitra (Slovakia) was chosen as a model area, where an urban - rural gradient was determined. It was categorized into three zones, depending on the distance from the city centre. Small mammals were examined by a comprehensive annual research during the seasons. Overall, 12 species of small mammals were found, Microtus arvalis (29.6%), Apodemus sylvaticus (23.1%), Apodemus flavicollis (20.6%) were eudominant. The communities of small mammals showed an increase in species diversity and richness from the suburban to the peripheral zone, and a decrease of diversity and richness with increasing urban conditions from the peripheral to the pericentral zone. The identified species of small mammals were categorized according to their dependence on urban environment as exoanthropic species, avoiding the presence of man and his habitations (A. sylvaticus, A. flavicollis, and Clethrionomys glareolus); hemisynantropic species, which thrive on the edges of towns, with greater or lesser affinity to humans (M. arvalis, Apodemus uralensis, Sorex araneus, Sorex minutus, Mus spicilegus, and Microtus subterraneus); and synanthropic species, tied to human dwellings, very dependent on human resources (Crocidura suaveolens).

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Vascular plants along an urban-rural gradient in the city of Tampere, Finland

Urban Ecosystems ◽

10.1007/s11252-011-0164-9 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 14 (3) ◽

pp. 361-376 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Pertti Ranta ◽

Ville Viljanen

Keyword(s):

Vascular Plants ◽

Urban Rural ◽

The City

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Rural's Reinvention in Rio de Janeiro: Café na Roça Experience in Campo Grande Neighborhood

Revista Rosa dos Ventos - Turismo e Hospitalidade ◽

10.18226/21789061.v13i2p389 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 389-408

Author(s):

Maria Amalia Silva Alves de Oliveira ◽

◽

Ingrid Almeida de Barros Pena ◽

Keyword(s):

Rural Communities ◽

Rio De Janeiro ◽

Social Representation ◽

Cultural Integration ◽

The West ◽

Field Methods ◽

The People ◽

The Social ◽

Urban Rural ◽

The City

The socioeconomic, political and cultural integration process of the region known as Zona Oeste [West Zone], in the city of Rio de Janeiro [Brazil], was built on agricultural vocation conceiving. The spatial analysis of this work is Rio da Prata, a neighborhood of Campo Grande, in the West Zone. Using desk and field methods, the methodological orientation is given by the theoretical framework of Social Memory. A contextualization of the region is presented in a historical perspective, seeking to dialogue in an interdisciplinary way with issues inherent to representations about the urban-rural from a perspective reoriented towards to the environmental bias, and also about the notions of 'tourism' and 'leisure'. It is hypothesized that the increase of visitation in natural areas, allied to the tendency of turistification of rural communities’ lifestyle changed the people flow in the neighborhood and produced symbolic goods. This work discusses the nuances presented in the turistification process and highlights that it is the memory of what remained in the social representation as rural that draws up the local attractiveness.

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The countryside in the city? Rural-urban dynamics in allotment gardens in Brno, Czech Republic

Moravian Geographical Reports ◽

10.2478/mgr-2019-0009 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 27 (2) ◽

pp. 108-121 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Lucie Sovová ◽

Radoslava Krylová

Keyword(s):

Czech Republic ◽

Social Life ◽

Urban Dynamics ◽

Allotment Gardens ◽

Urban Gardening ◽

The Social ◽

Urban Rural ◽

Hybrid Spaces ◽

The City ◽

Urban Characteristics

Abstract The position of urban allotments in the rural-urban spectrum is evaluated in this paper, which contributes to literatures on urban gardening, as well as contemporary rural-urban dynamics. Historically, European allotments can be seen as a product of urbanisation. At the same time, they embody a number of “non-urban” characteristics that create the impression of “the countryside in the city”. This research project investigates how the urban and the rural are materialised, represented and practised in five allotment sites in Brno, Czech Republic. We follow three main lines of enquiry where the urban and the rural seem to meet: the physical environment of the allotments; the social life of these spaces; and food production as one of their core functions. Critical reflection of the rural-urban perspective advances our understanding of urban gardens, while, at the same time, allotments offer an example of hybrid spaces, which, in turn, contribute to discussions on current cities and countrysides. Overcoming the urban-rural dichotomy could facilitate the inclusion of urban gardening in contemporary cities.

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