Landscape, vegetation characteristics, and group identity in an urban and suburban watershed: why the 60s matter
Landscape, vegetation characteristics, and group identity in an urban and suburban watershed: why the 60s matter
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DOI：
10.1007/s11252-009-0118-7
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发表时间：
2010-09-01
期刊：
影响因子：
2.9
通讯作者：
Buckley, Geoffrey L.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Boone, Christopher G.;Cadenasso, Mary L.;Buckley, Geoffrey L.
作为高度管理的生态系统，城市地区应反映其管理者（主要是居民）的社会特征。由于景观特征随着时间的推移而发展，我们假设现在的植被也应该反映过去居民的社会特征。本文利用巴尔的摩都会区的城市到郊区分水岭，研究了 1960 年和 2000 年的人口统计、住房特征和生活方式集群与 1999 年木本和草本植被覆盖率高的地区之间的关系。我们发现，与 2000 年的人口统计和住房特征相比，1960 年的人口统计数据和住房年龄更能预测 1999 年的高木本或树木覆盖率。 1960 年的数据为专业职业百分比 (+)、一战前住房百分比 (-)、二战后住房百分比 (+) 和人口密度 (-)。过去和现在的人口和住房变量对 1999 年高草本覆盖度的预测效果不佳。2000 年的生活方式集群对 1999 年高草本覆盖度的预测效果不佳，但 1960 年和 2000 年的生活方式集群对高木本植被覆盖度的预测效果不佳。这些发现表明，草本或草地（通常是草坪）很好地反映了居民的当代生活方式特征，而树木茂密的社区在很大程度上继承了过去居民和社区的首选景观。树木和木本植被的生物生长时间尺度意味着这些植被可能比设计、购买和种植它们的原始居民更长寿。因此，我们今天看到的景观是过去消费模式的遗产。
As highly managed ecosystems, urban areas should reflect the social characteristics of their managers, who are primarily residents. Since landscape features develop over time, we hypothesize that present-day vegetation should also reflect social characteristics of past residents. Using an urban-to-suburban watershed in the Baltimore Metropolitan Region, this paper examines the relationship between demographics, housing characteristics, and lifestyle clusters from 1960 and 2000 with areas of high woody and herbaceous vegetation cover in 1999. We find that 1960 demographics and age of housing are better predictors of high woody or tree coverage in 1999 than demographics and housing characteristics from 2000. Key variables from 1960 are percent in professional occupations (+), percent of pre-WWI housing (-), percent of post-WWII housing (+), and population density (-). Past and present demographic and housing variables are poor predictors of high herbaceous cover in 1999. Lifestyle clusters for 2000 are very good predictors of high herbaceous coverage in 1999, but lifestyle clusters from 1960 and 2000 are poor predictors of high woody vegetation coverage. These findings suggest that herbaceous or grassy areas, typically lawns, are good reflections of contemporary lifestyle characteristics of residents while neighborhoods with heavy tree canopies have largely inherited the preferred landscapes of past residents and communities. Biological growth time scales of trees and woody vegetation means that such vegetation may outlast the original inhabitants who designed, purchased, and planted them. The landscapes we see today are therefore legacies of past consumption patterns.