Biodiversity‐oriented urban management and planning require information on the drivers of wildlife composition and ecosystem function within cities. Urban landscapes impose environmental gradients along which species may be filtered away, or respond by showing adaptive variation in functional trait values. Such trait variation may in turn be due to a species' phenotypic plasticity, or a consequence of microevolution leading to local adaptation. This study investigates three possible plant responses to urban environmental gradients, with different evolutionary consequences: extinction, plasticity and adaptation. We assessed whether individual functional traits (LMA—leaf mass per area, plant height and flower length), population performance traits (seed mass and germination rate), as well as species frequency in the plant community, responded to gradients in mowing frequency, soil fertility and structure, temperature and surrounding mean building height, among four herbaceous plant species present in the metropolitan area of Strasbourg. Using a common garden experiment, we tested whether the observed trait variation was hereditary, and may thus constitute evidence for local adaptation. Our results detected the three types of expected responses. Plantago lanceolata is plastic to urban gradients, and Trifolium pratense showed both plastic and hereditary responses. Dactylis glomerata and Medicago lupulina showed all three responses: they both declined under increasing mowing frequency, were plastic to surrounding mean building height, and showed hereditary responses to different urban gradients. Urban management and planning therefore impact on the evolutionary capabilities of plants in cities. In the case of management this is highlighted by the detected trends in species' traits and frequency in response to mowing. The consequences of urban planning are evidenced by mean building height eliciting most often plastic and adaptive responses. Synthesis. Herbaceous plants often change their morphology in response to urban conditions: grass cutting, altered soils, warmer temperatures and being surrounded by tightly packed buildings. These changes are sometimes hereditary, which suggests that city management and planning affect the ability of plants to survive and evolve in urban environments.

中文翻译：

---

植物对城市梯度的响应：灭绝、可塑性、适应


以生物多样性为导向的城市管理和规划需要有关城市内野生动物组成和生态系统功能的驱动因素的信息。城市景观施加了环境梯度，物种可以沿着这些梯度被过滤掉，或者通过显示功能性状值的适应性变化来做出回应。这种性状变异反过来可能是由于物种的表型可塑性，或者是微进化导致局部适应的结果。本研究调查了三种可能的植物对城市环境梯度的反应，具有不同的进化后果：灭绝、可塑性和适应性。我们评估了个体功能性状（LMA——单位面积的叶质量、株高和花长）、种群性能特征（种子质量和发芽率）以及植物群落中的物种频率是否对割草频率、土壤肥力和结构、温度和周围平均建筑高度的梯度做出反应，在斯特拉斯堡大都市区存在的四种草本植物物种中。使用普通花园实验，我们测试了观察到的性状变异是否是遗传的，因此可能构成局部适应的证据。我们的结果检测到了三种类型的预期反应。车前草对城市梯度具有可塑性，而 Trifolium pratense 表现出可塑性和遗传反应。Dactylis glomerata 和 Medicago lupulina 表现出所有 3 种响应： 它们都随着割草频率的增加而下降，对周围平均建筑物高度具有可塑性，并表现出对不同城市梯度的遗传响应。因此，城市管理和规划会影响城市植物的进化能力。 在管理的情况下，检测到的物种性状和响应割草频率的趋势突出了这一点。城市规划的后果通过平均建筑高度得到证明，这通常会引起塑性和适应性反应。合成。草本植物通常会根据城市条件改变其形态：割草、改变土壤、温暖的温度以及被密集的建筑物包围。这些变化有时是遗传的，这表明城市管理和规划会影响植物在城市环境中生存和进化的能力。