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NSF PR 97-63 - October 19, 1997
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NSF Funds First Long-Term Studies of Urban Ecology
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded
grants for two long-term studies of urban ecology,
representing the first attempts ever made to study
the long-term ecology of urban environments.
Through the NSF grants, scientists may soon have answers
to such questions as: Is an urban existence good for
wildlife? What is "natural"? And do ecological relationships
operate in as complex a manner in urban landscapes
as in so-called pristine settings?
The awards will involve research on urban environments
in the cities of Phoenix, Arizona, and Baltimore,
Maryland, through NSF's Long-Term Ecological Research
(LTER) program. Phoenix and Baltimore will soon become
the most thoroughly and scientifically studied urban
environments in the world, according to Scott Collins,
director of NSF's LTER program.
"Factors that control urban ecosystems are not only
environmental, but also social and economic. These
factors and their interactions need to be considered
to understand urban ecosystems over long time frames
and broad spatial scales," says Collins.
Scientists affiliated with the new urban LTER sites
will work in several areas, including:
- Examining human impacts on land use and land-cover
change in urban systems, and relating these effects
to the overall ecosystem;
- Monitoring the effects of human-environmental
interactions in urban systems, and developing
appropriate tools (such as Geographical Information
Systems, or GIS) for data collection and analysis
of socioeconomic and ecosystem data;
- Developing integrated approaches to linking human
and natural systems in urban ecosystem environments;
- Integrating research with local K-12 educational
systems.
The new LTER sites will add two to the previous list
of 18 such NSF sites in North America and Antarctica.
"The previous sites represent a broad array of ecosystems
and research emphases," says Collins. "But none of
the already existing sites explicitly focuses on human-dominated
ecosystems."
The new NSF grants have been made to Arizona State
University, for the "Central Arizona-Phoenix" urban
LTER site, and to the Institute of Ecosystem Studies
in Millbrook, New York, for the "Metropolitan Baltimore"
urban LTER site. Scientists at several other institutions
also share in these awards.
"This is a quantum leap in studying the way the urban
environment works," says ecologist Charles Redman,
one of three Arizona State University directors of
the Phoenix site. "In the past, people have been concerned
with how cities operate, people have been concerned
about the environment, people have been concerned
about movement of goods, but there have been no projects
to look at it all."
Adds biologist Nancy Grimm, also a Phoenix site director,
"Among scientists, there's no question that humans
are now a driving force in all ecosystems on earth.
As a science, ecology has traditionally studied what
is perceived as 'pristine' ecosystems. But there are
few ecosystems left that are unaffected by humans.
There's been a call for ecologists to begin studying
ecosystems that are affected by humans."
Phoenix and Baltimore were chosen in part because,
according to Collins, they represent two ends of the
spectrum, in terms of their histories. "Phoenix is
changing very quickly, with desert turning into farmland,
industrial and residential sites almost weekly. In
Phoenix, 'before' and 'after' experiments are possible.
Baltimore, on the other hand, has a history that extends
back to the 1700s. This long history will allow ecologists
to look at human settlements as ecosystems, across
three centuries. The results should give us a good
idea of how humans and the lands they inhabit are
interacting."
Steward Pickett, director of the Baltimore site and
a scientist at the Institute of Ecosystem Studies,
says that "urban ecosystems are ecology's last frontier.
The knowledge gained from working on that frontier
will strengthen the field of ecology and enhance its
value to people as metropolitan areas grow."
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