Collaborative Research: Coupling Human Choice and Biogeochemical Cycling in Urban Ecosystems

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。人类越来越多地生活在城市生态系统中。 城市只占地球表面的1%到2%，但它们是地球化学循环的重要热点，因为它们集中了在其边界之外生产的食物和能源的消费。 因此，城市在很大程度上是不可持续的，需要大量进口化石燃料、食物和水。 此外，城市是化石燃料燃烧和废物产生所产生的温室气体排放和其他污染物的重要来源，导致顺风和下游的营养负荷。 然而，人们对人类行为因素和地球化学循环之间的社会生态耦合知之甚少。 这个合作研究项目旨在了解家庭地球化学通量和社会经济因素之间的耦合，沿着在明尼阿波利斯-圣保罗（双城）大都市地区在明尼苏达州的城市到郊区的梯度。 调查人员将把重点放在家庭消费上，因为它对城市生态地球化学循环有很大贡献，而且它具有潜在的灵活性，因此可以根据影响家庭选择的因素的变化而减少。 作为正在进行的双城家庭生态系统项目的一部分，对沿着城市到郊区的3 100户家庭进行了社会调查，并对一部分家庭的景观特征进行了调查。 关于影响生态地球化学通量的关键行为的调查数据，如机动车旅行，航空旅行，饮食，宠物和草坪护理，被用作家庭通量计算器的输入，以生成每个家庭的总碳（C），氮（N）和磷（P）通量。 该调查还收集了人口统计数据，并将行为与家庭态度，规范和感知控制联系起来。 该项目将使用TCHEP数据库来研究行为、人口和生物物理因素如何影响家庭决策，从而研究C、N和P在沿着住房密度梯度的家庭中的通量。 研究人员将确定单一家庭的消费和污染对城市研究区域范围内C、N和P通量的影响，并将研究通过社交网络交换的信息如何影响行为，以改变消费选择和元素通量。 因此，该项目将研究家庭选择与元素流动之间的反馈回路。 阐明这种社会-环境耦合的性质，应刺激新的方法，使城市更具可持续性，减少城市污染，并减少城市对气候变化的贡献，该项目的长期目标是促进对城市生态系统中综合的人类-生物物理相互作用的理解，以提高对城市生物地球化学循环的认识和管理。 该研究将量化行为灵活性及其潜在的行为控制对家庭元素通量的影响。 加强对人类行为和地球化学之间的耦合的理解，预计将通过识别减少污染源的行为变化来改变减少污染的方法。 该项目将为众多本科生和研究生以及博士后研究人员提供广泛的教育和培训。 它将与明尼苏达州科学博物馆的Science Buzz网络项目合作，为非科学家开发一个交互式网页。 调查人员将使用HFC模型作为本科课程的教学工具，并通过万维网传播TCHEP调查工具、TCHEP数据库和HFC工具。 项目成果应有助于发展新的污染控制模式，其基础是减少污染源、指导适应性管理的信息反馈回路和更多的公民参与。 该项目由NSF耦合自然和人类系统动力学（CNH）计划支持。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). Humans are increasingly living in urban ecosystems. Cities cover only one to two percent of Earth's surface, but they are important hotspots of biogeochemical cycling because they concentrate the consumption of food and energy that are produced beyond their boundaries. Cities therefore are largely unsustainable, requiring large imports of fossil fuels, food, and water. Furthermore, cities are important sources of greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants resulting from fossil fuel combustion and waste generation that lead to nutrient loading downwind and downstream. Little is known about the socio-ecological coupling between human behavioral factors and biogeochemical cycles, however. This collaborative research project seeks to understand the coupling between household biogeochemical fluxes and socioeconomic factors along an urban to exurban gradient in the Minneapolis-St. Paul (Twin Cities) metropolitan region in Minnesota. The investigators will focus on household consumption because it contributes substantially to urban biogeochemical cycling and because it is potentially flexible and therefore amenable to reduction in response to changes in factors that influence household choices. As part of the ongoing Twin Cities Household Ecosystem Project (TCHEP), a social survey of 3,100 households was conducted along an urban-to-exurban gradient, and landscape characteristics were surveyed for a subset of households. Survey data about key behaviors that influence biogeochemical fluxes, such as motor vehicle travel, air travel, diet, pets, and lawn care, are used as input to a Household Flux Calculator to generate total and component carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) fluxes for each household. The survey also gathered demographic data and linked behaviors with household attitudes, norms, and perceived control. This project will use the TCHEP database to examine how behavioral, demographic, and biophysical factors influence household decisions and, thus, the fluxes of C, N, and P through households along a gradient of housing density. The investigators will determine the effect of consumption and pollution produced by single family households on fluxes of C, N, and P at the scale of the urban study region, and they will examine how behaviors can be influenced by messages exchanged through social networks to change consumption choices and elemental fluxes. The project therefore will examine the feedback loop between household choices and elemental fluxes. Elucidating the nature of such socio-environmental coupling should stimulate novel approaches to making cities more sustainable, reducing urban pollution, and reducing urban contributions to climate change.The long-term goal of this project is to advance understanding of integrated human-biophysical interactions in urban ecosystems towards improved knowledge and management of urban biogeochemical cycles. The study will quantify the effect of behavioral flexibility and its underlying behavioral controls on elemental fluxes through households. Enhanced understanding of the coupling between human behavior and biogeochemistry is expected to transform approaches to reducing pollution through identification of behavioral changes that reduce pollutant sources. The project will provide extensive education and training of numerous undergraduate and graduate fellows s well as post-doctoral researchers. It will develop an interactive web page for non-scientists in collaboration with the Science Museum of Minnesota's Science Buzz web project. The investigators will use the HFC model as a teaching tool in undergraduate courses and disseminate the TCHEP survey tool, the TCHEP database, and the HFC tool through the world-wide web. Project outcomes should facilitate the development of new paradigms to pollution control that are based on source reduction, information feedback loops to guide adaptive management, and greater citizen involvement. This project is supported by the NSF Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems (CNH) Program.