CAREER: Spatial Heterogeneity and Ecosystem Function in an Urban Landscape: An Integrated Research, Teaching, and Community Engagement Program

城市区域主要由三个物理特征主导：1)建筑物，2)地面，如人行道和裸露的土壤，以及3)植被。这些地物在城市景观上的数量和布局可能会影响一座城市的蓄水散热能力。这些能力很重要，因为城市经常容易发生山洪暴发和酷热。高温加剧了地面臭氧的形成，这是一个令人担忧的空气质量问题，并导致高用水量和高能耗。城市景观的特点是这些特征的复杂组合，这些特征在很短的距离内变化。很难理解土地覆盖如何决定保留地表水和散热的能力，因为目前描述城市土地覆盖的方法侧重于如何使用土地，例如用于住宅或商业用途，而没有认识到这些不同使用类别中可能存在的物理特征的变化。这项研究将在加利福尼亚州的萨克拉门托应用一种新的土地覆盖描述符，该描述符会捕捉物理特征的变化，并将测试这种新的土地覆盖方法是否会提高对物理特征与水分保持和热量散失之间的联系的理解。河流流量将在5个小城市集水区进行量化，这些集水区排水的区域变化截然不同。陆地表面温度的精细测量将来自卫星数据。城市地区的洪水和高温暴露将人类以及动植物种群置于危险之中。这项研究的结果将为城市系统的设计和管理决策提供参考，以降低这些风险。将开发新的本科课程和研究机会，使学生接触到高度跨学科、快速变化的城市生态领域。

Urban areas are dominated by three physical features: 1) buildings, 2) surfaces, such as pavement and bare soil, and 3) vegetation. The amount and arrangement of these features on the urban landscape may influence a city?s capacity to retain surface storm water and dissipate heat. These capacities are important because cities are frequently prone to flash flooding and extreme heat. High temperatures exacerbate ground level ozone formation, an air quality concern, and lead to high water and energy use. The urban landscape is characterized by complex combinations of these features, which change over very short distances. Understanding how land cover determines the capacity to retain surface water and dissipate heat is difficult because current methods to describe urban land cover focus on how the land is used, such as for residential or commercial purposes, and do not recognize the variation in physical features that may exist within these different use categories. This research will apply a new descriptor of land cover to Sacramento, California, that captures variation in the physical features and will test whether this new land cover methodology improves understanding of the link between physical features and water retention and heat dissipation. Stream discharge will be quantified in 5 small city catchments that drain areas of contrasting variation. Fine scale measurements of land surface temperature will be derived from satellite data. Flooding and heat exposure in urban areas put human, as well as animal and plant populations at risk. Results from this research will inform design and management decisions in urban systems to reduce these risks. New undergraduate courses and research opportunities to expose students to the highly interdisciplinary, and rapidly changing, field of urban ecology will be developed.