How changes in California culture have influenced the evolution of wild animals in Los Angeles (Links to an external site)

How changes in California culture have influenced the evolution of wild animals in Los Angeles
A new study in Nature Cities co-authored by LEC postdoc, Liz Carlen, argues that human culture — including religion, politics and war — influences how wildlife evolves in cities. In Los Angeles, factors such as policing, zoning, and local values and attitudes influence where animals live, how they’re treated and their behaviors. Indigenous Californian leaders say respecting animals as relatives, not threats, can guide better ways to share urban spaces.

War, politics and religion shape wildlife evolution in cities (Links to an external site)

War, politics and religion shape wildlife evolution in cities
Evolution is not separate from human society—human cultural practices, especially in cities, can significantly influence the evolution of wildlife. Actions like habitat fragmentation and altering local environments create new evolutionary pressures, leading to changes in genes favored by natural selection. A recent global review in Nature Cities by evolutionary biologists, including Marta Szulkin, Colin Garroway, and LEC postdoc, Elizabeth Carlen, shows how cultural forces like religion, politics, and war shape urban evolution in animals and plants.

The Living Earth Collaborative and SDS Co-Sponsor Biodiversity Presentation from Missouri Botanical Garden (Links to an external site)

The Living Earth Collaborative and SDS Co-Sponsor Biodiversity Presentation from Missouri Botanical Garden
Representatives from the Missouri Botanical Garden and WashU have begun discussing an ambitious new project that would combine botany with data science. Garden staff are currently engaged in a long-term effort called Revolutionizing Species Identification (RSI), which aims to digitize more than 8 million specimens of the Garden Herbarium. The resulting database would include high-resolution images and fully searchable details on each specimen, opening the door for groundbreaking data analysis projects

Tropical bounty: How forests can turn into chemical factories (Links to an external site)

Tropical bounty: How forests can turn into chemical factories
A new study published in the journal Ecology and led by researchers at WashU, UMSL, and the Missouri Botanical Garden has uncovered a surprising layer of diversity in tropical forests. The researchers examined tree leaves collected as part of the Madidi Project (https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/plant-science/plant-science/south-america/the-madidi-project). The work was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Living Earth Collaborative.

Missouri Botanical Garden’s new leader offers a virtual tour of the Amazon (Links to an external site)

Missouri Botanical Garden’s new leader offers a virtual tour of the Amazon
The Living Earth Collaborative welcomed Lúcia Lohmann, renowned Amazon forest expert and the Missouri Botanical Garden’s new president and director, as the keynote speaker for Tropical Forest February, drawing over 250 attendees. Lohmann’s talk highlighted both the staggering biodiversity of the Amazon and the immense gaps in scientific knowledge, underscoring the importance of collaborative research and conservation efforts led by the Garden, WashU, and the Saint Louis Zoo.

A Living Earth Collaborative-funded team studies how foraged foods can combat malnutrition (Links to an external site)

A Living Earth Collaborative-funded team studies how foraged foods can combat malnutrition
By linking an expert nutritionist from WashU with a team of ethnobotanists from the Missouri Botanical Garden, this transdisciplinary project delved into the complex interplay between plants and people.

Green cities, zero emissions in construction, industry and transport essential for civilisation to flourish (Links to an external site)

Green cities, zero emissions in construction, industry and transport essential for civilisation to flourish
Can St Louis Missouri, the city of 280,000 residents located near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers be the nature city of the twenty-first century? As Peter Bernhardt reports, public knowledge of the city’s urban biology is poor, so St Louis has some catching up ahead if it’s to achieve this lofty title.

Wild Foods Are Positively Associated with Diet Diversity and Child Growth in a Protected Forest Area of Madagascar (video) (Links to an external site)

Wild Foods Are Positively Associated with Diet Diversity and Child Growth in a Protected Forest Area of Madagascar (video)
Lora Iannotti, a Biodiversity Fellow and professor at Wahu’s Brown School sat down with WashU’s School of Public Health Dean Sandro Galea to discuss a paper Iannotti co-authored, “Wild Foods Are Positively Associated with Diet Diversity and Child Growth in a Protected Forest Area of Madagascar.” This paper was co-authored with several Biodiversity Fellows from Missouri Botanical Garden: Tabita Randrianarivony, Armand Randrianasolo, Robbie Hart and originated from a Living Earth Collaborative Seed Grant project. Learn more about the project at https://bit.ly/Wildfood

Coyote genes may show urban evolution at work (Links to an external site)

Coyote genes may show urban evolution at work
A recent study in Genome Biology and Evolution co-authored by LEC postdoc Liz Carlen examines the genetic makeup of urban coyotes to understand how these animals adapt to city environments. The research suggests that urban coyotes may be undergoing evolutionary changes that enable them to thrive alongside human populations. These findings contribute to our understanding of urban ecology and the impact of urbanization on wildlife species.

The Missouri Botanical Garden’s Herbarium goes digital to revolutionize species identification (Links to an external site)

The Missouri Botanical Garden’s Herbarium goes digital to revolutionize species identification
The Revolutionizing Species Identification (RSI) project at the Missouri Botanical Garden uses advanced AI technology to digitize its vast herbarium collection, creating a global reference library for rapid plant species identification. This online platform will enable scientists to upload data from unidentified plants for automated identification, accelerating restoration and conservation efforts worldwide. Additionally, the project provides training in plant taxonomy and herbarium creation, cultivating the next generation of botanical experts.

Climate change is super-charging St. Louis wildflowers (Links to an external site)

Climate change is super-charging St. Louis wildflowers
The wildflowers that bring a burst of color to meadows and forests across St. Louis are blooming later and longer than they did in previous decades, according to a study led by researchers with the Living Earth Collaborative, a signature initiative of the Arts & Sciences Strategic Plan. The study by Missouri Botanical Garden’s Matthew Austin and Ken Olsen, the George William and Irene Koechig Freiberg Professor of Biology is published in New Phytologist.