Advances in Urban Ecology: Integrating Humans and Ecological Processes in Urban EcosystemsNatural and social scientists face a great challenge in the coming decades: to understand the role that humans play in ecosystems, particularly urban ecosystems. Cities and urbanizing regions are complex coupled hum- natural systems in which people are the dominant agents. As humans transform natural landscapes into highly human-dominated environments, they create a new set of ecological conditions by changing ecosystem processes and dynamics. Urbanization changes natural habitats and species composition, alters hydrological systems, and modifies energy flows and nutrient cycles. Although the impacts of urban development on ecosystems occur locally, they cause environmental changes at larger scales. Envir- mental changes resulting from urbanization influence human behaviors and dynamics and affect human health and well-being. Remarkable progress has been made in studying the impact of urban de- lopment on ecosystem functions (McDonnell and Pickett 1993, McDonnell et al. 1997, Grimm et al. 2000, Pickett et al. 2001, Alberti et al. 2003), yet the interactions and feedback between human processes and ecosystem dynamics in urbanizing regions are still poorly understood. In this book I argue that new syntheses across the natural and social sciences are necessary if urban and ecological dynamics are to be successfully integrated into a common fra- work to advance urban ecology research. If we remain within the traditional disciplinary boundaries, we will not make progress towards a theory of urban ecosystems as coupled human-ecological systems, because no single disc- line can provide an unbiased and integrated perspective. |
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Contents
1 | |
11 The Dynamics of Urban EcoSystems | 8 |
12 Cities as Human Systems | 15 |
13 Cities as Ecological Systems | 16 |
14 Cities as Hybrid Ecosystems | 17 |
15 Complexity Emergent Properties and SelfOrganization | 20 |
16 Resilience in Urban Ecosystems | 22 |
17 Rationale for a Synthesis | 25 |
BIOGEOCHEMICAL PROCESSES | 163 |
62 The Carbon Cycle | 167 |
63 The Sulfur Cycle | 170 |
64 The Phosphorus Cycle | 172 |
65 The Nitrogen Cycle | 174 |
66 Urban Patterns and Nutrient Cycling | 176 |
ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES | 182 |
72 Urban Air Quality and Climate Change | 186 |
OF ECOSYSTEMS HUMANS AS A COMPONENT | 27 |
21 Emergence and Evolution of Settlement Patterns | 29 |
22 Modeling Urban Development and Ecology | 34 |
23 An AgentBased Hierarchical Model | 43 |
24 Modeling Changes in Land Use and Land Cover | 49 |
25 Changes in Land Use and Land Cover in Central Puget Sound | 54 |
URBAN PATTERNS AND ECOSYSTEM FUNCTION | 61 |
32 Net Primary Productivity | 78 |
33 Hydrological Function | 79 |
34 Nutrient Cycles | 81 |
35 Biodiversity | 82 |
36 Disturbance Regimes | 85 |
37 An Empirical Study in Puget Sound | 86 |
LANDSCAPE SIGNATURES | 93 |
42 Gradients Patches Networks and Hierarchies | 95 |
43 Urban Landscape Signatures | 103 |
44 Measuring Urban Landscape Patterns | 112 |
45 Detecting Landscape Patterns in Puget Sound | 117 |
46 Monitoring Landscape Change in Puget Sound | 126 |
HYDROLOGICAL PROCESSES | 132 |
52 Urban Hydrological Functions | 137 |
53 HumanInduced Changes in Urban Watersheds | 144 |
54 Urban Patterns and Stream Biotic Integrity | 152 |
73 Urban Heat Islands | 187 |
74 Urban Patterns and Air Quality | 194 |
POPULATION AND COMMUNITY DYNAMICS | 197 |
82 Urban Patch Dynamics | 207 |
83 Urban Ecosystem Processes and Biodiversity | 210 |
A Case Study in the Puget Sound | 217 |
FUTURES OF URBAN ECOSYSTEMS | 225 |
92 Complexity and Predictability | 227 |
93 Spatial and Temporal Heterogeneity | 231 |
94 Threshold Discontinuity and Surprises | 232 |
95 Scenario Planning and Adaptive Management | 237 |
96 Hypothetical Scenarios of Urban Ecosystem Functions | 242 |
URBAN ECOLOGY A SYNTHESIS | 251 |
102 Toward a Theory of Urban Ecology | 254 |
103 Building Integrated Models | 261 |
104 A Research Agenda for Urban Ecology | 263 |
105 Implications for Urban Planning | 267 |
106 A Final Note | 270 |
GLOSSARY | 272 |
REFERENCES | 277 |
355 | |
Other editions - View all
Advances in Urban Ecology: Integrating Humans and Ecological Processes in ... marina Alberti No preview available - 2008 |
Advances in Urban Ecology: Integrating Humans and Ecological Processes in ... marina Alberti No preview available - 2008 |
Common terms and phrases
agents Alberti alternative approach aquatic avian behaviors biodiversity biogeochemistry biological biophysical biophysical processes biotic Booth C. S. Holling cities climate change complex coupled human-natural systems density disturbance regimes diversity ecological conditions ecological footprint ecological functions ecological processes ecological systems economic ecosystem function ecosystem processes effects emergent energy environment environmental factors feedback Figure flow forest framework global habitat heat island hierarchical Holling human and ecological human functions hydrological hypotheses impact impervious surface increase influence infrastructure integrated interactions between human Journal landscape ecology levels Marzluff McDonnell metrics microsimulation models multiple natural nitrogen nutrient cycling ozone patterns and processes Pickett planning pollution population predict Puget Sound resilience riparian riparian zone runoff scales scenarios scholars simulation soil spatial and temporal species richness sprawl structure theory urban areas urban development urban ecology urban ecosystems urban heat island urban land urban landscape patterns urban patterns urbanizing regions variables vegetation watersheds