2024/07/10 by Yannick Woudstra, Ron Kraaiveld, Alger Jorritsma +6 · 1 voice · 3 citations
Environmental Science · #Land Use and Ecosystem Services #Urban Green Space and Health #Urban Heat Island Mitigation
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/evlett/qrae040
openalex publication_date 2024/07/10 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Abstract The Urban Heat Island Effect (UHIE) is a globally consistent pressure on biological species living in cities. Adaptation to the UHIE may be necessary for urban wild flora to persist in cities, but experimental evidence is scarce. Here, we report evidence of adaptive evolution in a perennial plant species in response to the UHIE. We collected seeds from common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) individuals along an urban–rural gradient in the city of Amsterdam (The Netherlands). In common-environment greenhouse experiments, we assessed the effect of elevated temperatures on plant growth and the effect of vernalization treatments on flowering phenology. We found that urban plants accumulate more biomass at higher temperatures and require shorter vernalization periods, corresponding to milder winters, to induce flowering compared to rural plants. Differentiation was also observed between different intra-urban subhabitats, with park plants displaying a higher vernalization requirement than street plants. Our results show genetic differentiation between urban and rural dandelions in temperature-dependent growth and phenology, consistent with adaptive divergence in response to the UHIE. Adaptation to the UHIE may be a potential explanation for the persistence of dandelions in urban environments.