CAREER: Assessing urban influences on ecosystem processes

城市地区排放了绝大多数的人为二氧化碳，但大多数研究陆地和大气碳动态的努力都避开了受城市化影响的地区。城市区域在空间范围内不断增长，城市生态与人们息息相关--S的生活和碳减排战略的制定。这项研究将增进对城市化如何影响波士顿城乡梯度上的生态系统特征和生产力的理解，并建立一个分析城市对生态系统影响的框架，方法是：(1)量化生态系统生产力在城乡梯度上的变化，并为生产力估计建立明确的经验基础；(2)绘制土地覆盖变化的历史和当前模式图，以确定发展轨迹和城市土地增加的碳后果；以及(3)开发新的方法，将这项工作的成果从地块和像素水平扩展到整个区域。这项研究解决了迫切需要科学为政策的制定提供信息，以加强核心生态系统服务(例如，空气和水净化、碳和氮封存、食品和能源生产)，同时支持日益增长的城市人口。这项工作包括开发新的科学教育课程，与波士顿市政府合作，并将支持本科生和研究生的研究。

Urban areas emit the vast majority of anthropogenic CO2, but most efforts to study terrestrial and atmospheric carbon dynamics avoid areas influenced by urbanization. Urban areas are growing in spatial extent and the ecology of cities is becoming ever more germane to people?s lives and the development of carbon mitigation strategies. This research will improve understanding of how urbanization affects ecosystem characteristics and productivity across the Boston urban-to-rural gradient, and develop a framework for analysis of urban impacts on ecosystems, by (1) quantifying how ecosystem productivity changes across an urban-to-rural gradient and developing a clear empirical foundation for productivity estimation; (2) mapping historical and current patterns of land-cover change to determine trajectories of development and the carbon consequences of increasing urban lands; and (3) developing new methods to scale the results of this work from the plot and pixel level to the entire region.This research addresses the pressing need for science to inform the development of policies that enhance core ecosystem services (e.g., air and water purification, carbon and nitrogen sequestration, food and energy production) while supporting a growing and increasingly urban human population. This work includes the development of a new science education curriculum, collaborations with the City of Boston, and will support undergraduate and graduate student research.