49.4 Human Influence On Evolution

It has sometimes been claimed that, as humans exert increasing influence on nature, evolution will grind to a halt. Nothing could be further from the truth. As examples in the preceding sections show, what is changing, and what will continue to change as the human footprint grows, is the selective landscape within which evolution operates. Some species, for example rats and cockroaches, thrive in the urban environments we have constructed for our own benefit. Others will expand or decline as we replace prairies and forests with crop- and pastureland. What are our conscious and inadvertent effects on evolution and biodiversity?