NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2017: Patterns, drivers and consequences of land-use transitions: urban agriculture as a model system

这是NSF生物学博士后研究奖学金，根据扩大生物学中代表性不足的群体的参与计划。这位名叫Theresa Wei Ying Ong的研究员正在进行研究并接受培训，以增加生物学中代表性不足的群体的参与。该研究员由以下赞助科学家指导：西蒙·莱文（普林斯顿大学）、斯泰西·菲尔波特（加州大学圣克鲁斯）和布伦达·林（CSIRO-澳大利亚）。城市农业为科学领域代表性不足的群体提供了粮食安全、生物多样性、绿色空间和教育机会，但城市景观不断变化，地块经常在空地、城市花园和开发土地之间过渡。本研究探讨了城市地区土地利用变化的过去和未来模式，社会经济和生态因素在推动变化中的作用，以及土地利用变化如何影响生物多样性和生态系统功能。该研究员正在参与多学科合作，这将推动她在理论，景观和城市生态学交叉点的工作。该项目解决了为什么向城市农业的过渡在某些情况下比其他情况下更持久，并将与正在寻求城市花园土地使用权的社区成员分享结果。该研究员通过与赞助的科学家合作，正在接受社会生态理论方面的培训，并正在开发一个土地使用过渡的空间明确动态模型，该模型是与土地使用状态之间过渡的方向和频率相关的净社会生态成本的函数。该模型还适合从城市花园的社会生态数据，未来的土地利用变化正在预测，并将结果与过去的模式观察到的大，城市县的加州使用历史航空影像。历史土地利用变化被分为动态类型，从关键到平稳，过渡类型回归对城市园林害虫和天敌生物多样性的数据，以了解其对生物控制的影响。更广泛的影响和扩大参与的努力针对的是来自工人阶级家庭的青年，他们使用城市农业来维持粮食生计，并直接受到其社区中产阶级化造成的土地使用变化的影响。这些人正在参加研讨会，重点是社会生态驱动因素和土地使用过渡的后果，在自己的社区生物控制服务。这项研究的结果正通过为城市园丁和城市规划者设计的政策小册子进一步传播。

This is an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology, under the program Broadening Participation of Groups Under-represented in Biology. The fellow, Theresa Wei Ying Ong, is conducting research and receiving training that is increasing the participation of groups underrepresented in biology. The fellow is being mentored by the following sponsoring scientists: Simon Levin (Princeton University), Stacy Philpott (University of California Santa Cruz), and Brenda Lin (CSIRO- Australia). Urban agriculture provides food security, biodiversity, greenspace and educational opportunities to underrepresented groups in science, yet urban landscapes are in constant flux, with parcels frequently transitioning between vacant lots, urban gardens and developed land. This research explores past and future patterns of land-use change in urban areas, the role of socio-economic and ecological factors in driving change, and how land-use change influences biodiversity and ecosystem function. The fellow is participating in multidisciplinary collaborations that will advance her work at the intersection of theoretical, landscape and urban ecology. The project addresses why transitions to urban agriculture are more permanent in some cases than others, and results will be shared with community members who are seeking land-tenure for urban gardens in gentrifying neighborhoods. The fellow is receiving training in socio-ecological theory through collaborations with the sponsoring scientists, and is developing a spatially-explicit dynamic model of land-use transitions as a function of the net socio-ecological costs associated with the direction and frequency of transitions between land-use states. The model is also being fit with socio-ecological data from urban gardens, future land-use changes are being predicted, and results are compared to past patterns observed for large, urban counties of California using historical aerial imagery. Historical land-use change is being categorized into dynamic types ranging from critical to smooth, and transition type regressed against data on pest and natural enemy biodiversity in urban gardens to understand its impact on biological control. Broader impacts and broadening participation efforts target youth from working-class families that use urban agriculture for food subsistence and are directly influenced by the land-use change resulting from gentrification of their neighborhoods. These individuals are participating in workshops focused on the socio-ecological drivers and consequences of land-use transitions for biological control services in their own neighborhoods. The results of this research are being further disseminated through policy pamphlets designed for relevance to urban gardeners and city planners.