How changes in California culture have influenced the evolution of wild animals in Los Angeles (Links to an external site)
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)
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.
Religion, politics and war drive urban wildlife evolution (Links to an external site)
A new study in the journal Nature Cities co-authored by LEC Postdoc Elizabeth Carlen describes how socially driven interactions between humans and urban wildlife can lead to evolutionary change for animals or plants.
Biodiversity, Biodiversity Fellow, Global Conservation Futures, Partner Institution, Post-doc, Primates, Urban Biodiversity
Global biodiversity begins at home with the Living Earth Collaborative (Links to an external site)
Combining the forces of WashU, the Missouri Botanical Garden, and the Saint Louis Zoo, the Living Earth Collaborative works to protect the plants and animals of the world — for their sake and ours.
Biodiversity, Biodiversity Fellow, Event, Global Conservation Futures, Partner Institution, Post-doc Alum
The Living Earth Collaborative and SDS Co-Sponsor Biodiversity Presentation from Missouri Botanical Garden (Links to an external site)
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)
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.
Inspired by nature (Links to an external site)
Faculty at WashU follow the natural world for inspiration and ideas for innovative and “wild” solutions.
Missouri Botanical Garden’s new leader offers a virtual tour of the Amazon (Links to an external site)
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.
Fran – the goose who knows her road signs! (Links to an external site)
Meet Fran, a Canada Goose fitted a GPS collar as part of the Forest Park Living Lab project. From Forest Park to Fairground Park and across the Mississippi to East Saint Louis, Fran is moving through the green spaces and waterways of the St. Louis region.
World-renowned experts in tropical plant biodiversity join WashU, Missouri Botanical Garden (Links to an external site)
Washington University in St. Louis and the Missouri Botanical Garden are welcoming two internationally recognized botanists who will have joint appointments with both research institutions. The hiring of Lúcia Lohmann and Toby Pennington bolster long-standing ties between university, garden
Biodiversity, Biodiversity Fellow, Global Conservation Futures, LEC Seed Grant, One Health, Partner Institution, Publication
A Living Earth Collaborative-funded team studies how foraged foods can combat malnutrition (Links to an external site)
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)
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.
Biodiversity, Biodiversity Fellow, Global Conservation Futures, LEC Seed Grant, One Health, Partner Institution, Publication
Wild Foods Are Positively Associated with Diet Diversity and Child Growth in a Protected Forest Area of Madagascar (video) (Links to an external site)
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
Coyotes in urban America are evolving; this can be seen in their genes, says study (Links to an external site)
Scientists show changes in genes related to diet of urban coyotes who eat foods high in glucose and starches
Coyote genes may show urban evolution at work (Links to an external site)
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 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.
Coyotes Silver and Solar logged hundreds of miles crisscrossing St. Louis (Links to an external site)
Researchers with the Forest Park Living Lab say that the home ranges of both Silver, a male coyote, and Solar, a female coyote with pups, were typical for urban coyotes.
Researchers hoped to track two coyotes in St. Louis for a year. The animals didn’t make it. (Links to an external site)
Forest Park Living Lab researchers aimed to track two coyotes for a year to study their behavior and movement patterns. Unfortunately, the animals did not survive.
Animals that are all black or all white have reputations based on superstition − biases that have real effects (Links to an external site)
LEC postdoctoral fellow, Elizabeth Carlen and UC Berkely student Tyus Williams explore how superstitions have created biases in approaches to animal conservation.
Carlen wins Association for Women in Science award (Links to an external site)
Biologist Elizabeth Carlen, a postdoctoral fellow with the Living Earth Collaborative at WashU, received a 2024 Spark Award from the Association for Women in Science (AWIS).
The secret lives of St. Louis copperhead snakes (Links to an external site)
USHSP associate professor of biology and LEC Biodiversity Fellow, Ben Jellen, is featured on Saint Louis on the Air discussing his copperhead snake study in Powder Valley and his longstanding partnership with Saint Louis Zoo.
Sanz installed as James W. and Jean L. Davis Professor (Links to an external site)
LEC Co-director, Crickette Sanz was installed as the James W. and Jean L. Davis Professor in Arts and Sciences Sept. 4. Her installation address was titled “Learning From Great Apes About Rank.”
Building a “Nature City” from the ground up (Links to an external site)
On September 13th, the Living Earth Collaborative — a three-way partnership between the Missouri Botanical Garden, Saint Louis Zoo, and WashU — convened a symposium to imagine a St. Louis that lives in harmony with its natural surroundings.
Climate change is super-charging St. Louis wildflowers (Links to an external site)
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.
Long stems on flowers are an adaptation that encourages bat pollination, research suggests (Links to an external site)
Biodiversity Fellow and UMSL faculty, Nathan Muchhala’s new research published in New Phytologist reveals the evolutionary advantage that this characteristic provides to plants to ensure that they are discovered by bats.