The impact of human activities on nature

Religious practices, political decisions and warfare can have far-reaching effects on evolutionary processes affecting organisms surviving in urban environments. These are the results of investigation conducted by an global squad of researchers, whose associate is Prof. Marta Szulkin from the Faculty of Biology of the University of Warsaw. This article was published in the diary Nature cities.

An global squad of scientists from Poland, the United States, Canada, Brazil, Ecuador, France, Germany and Ukraine examines the impact of social, political and military factors on nature and its evolutionary processes. investigation results were published in the article Legacy effects of religion, politics and war on urban evolution biology, published in the diary Nature cities. Correspondent author of the work is Prof. Marta Szulkin from the Faculty of Biology of the University of Warsaw.

The authors pointed out 3 areas of human influence on nature – spiritual practices, political decisions and warfare. They described how social interactions between humans and wildlife can lead to evolutionary changes in animals or plants, causing phenomena specified as genetic drifts, mutations or extinction of the population.

– The article brings a fresh position to evolutionary biology, integrating it with social sciences and humanities. In investigation we focus on systematic demonstration that religion, politics and war – traditionally analysed in sociological or historical sciences – have a real impact on the evolution of organisms surviving in cities," says Prof. Marta Szulkin.

Three areas of impact

In a published paper, researchers point out that spiritual practices can be 1 of the factors conducive to biodiversity, as well as to biodiversity imbalance. The islands of urban biodiversity can be e.g. cemeteries in Poland that supply shelter for birds. On the another hand, prayer rites practiced in Asia associated with the release of animals (fish, birds, frogs) in places another than their first settlement may origin biological changes in ecosystems.

Researchers besides examine the natural consequences of political decisions on both macro and micro scale. The article cites political and economical changes after 1989 in Central and east Europe leading to fast suburbanisation and local decisions in various cities around the planet concerning urban greens, resulting in changes in the functioning of the population of tiny animals.

The 3rd origin analysed by researchers, the most impacting natural environment, is military action. An example of specified far-reaching effects are, for example, the changes observed in Kharkiv, Ukraine, where warfare has caused the disappearance of respective species of birds, in peculiar the sparrow population.

An Interdisciplinary Approach

Scientists point out that investigation into biological evolution in urban environments traditionally focuses on physical factors specified as habitat fragmentation, contamination and availability of resources, frequently disregarding social and political factors that form urban environments. The image presented in Nature cities is simply a more integrated investigation perspective.