LTER: CAP V: Investigating how relationships between urban ecological infrastructure and human-environment interactions shape the structure and function of urban ecosystems

人类日益成为城市物种，因此城市生态系统非常重要。城市是能源和资源的集中消费者和各种废物的生产者，但它们也是社会网络、创新、效率和解决方案的中心。亚利桑那州中部-凤凰城长期生态研究项目（CAP V）是一个研究项目，包括来自不同学科的科学家，他们专注于理解城市作为混合生态系统，包括环境和人类成分，以及它们之间的相互作用。经过25年的创新研究，了解城市生态系统仍然是CAP V的中心焦点。人类的动机、行为、行动和结果与城市生态系统结构和功能的相互联系，导致了本项目解决的一个基本问题。城市生态基础设施如何调节人类与环境的相互作用，从而塑造过去、现在和未来的生态系统功能？该项目将进一步表明，我们如何利用这些关系的知识，为更加公正、变革和可持续的未来提供信息。更广泛的社会影响被有意地整合到CAP V研究中，许多活动涉及与从业者和社区的明确合作，这些从业者和社区在历史上对其城市和环境的未来几乎没有发言权。这项工作在社会生态研究成果、城市机构和社区之间形成了转化联系，最终目标是使凤凰城乃至整个城市成为更好、更可持续的居住地。城市生态基础设施（UEI）作为系统的生物物理和人类/社会领域之间的关键桥梁，其研究将扩展其重点。CAP的研究人员将继续在住宅景观、城市水体、沙漠公园和保护区探索跨学科的城市生态学，同时研究凤凰城大都市区的植物、动物、气候、城市设计和治理。新的研究计划将包括关注环境正义和公平，以及城市空气质量。这项研究将为服务不足和历史上被忽视的社区（包括当地土著社区）提供知识和解决方案。CAP V的研究围绕5个交叉领域展开：1)生态系统结构与功能与生物地球化学循环；2)适应与生态进化动力学；3)城市气候和空气质量；4)城市自然与人类的感知、决策和福祉；5)环境正义、治理和变革的未来。在过去25年CAP研究的背景下调查这些问题，将指导CAP研究工作，为美国城市和我们日益城市化的社会创造更可持续、更有弹性的未来。这个奖项是由环境生物学部和行为与认知科学学部共同资助的。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Humankind is increasingly an urban species and urban ecosystems are therefore profoundly important. Cities are concentrated consumers of energy and resources and producers of various wastes, but they are also centers of social networks, innovation, efficiency, and solutions. The Central Arizona–Phoenix Long Term Ecological Research program (CAP V) is a research project that includes scientists from a variety of disciplines focused on understanding cities as hybrid ecosystems including both environmental and human components, and their interactions. Understanding urban ecosystems remains the central focus of CAP V after 25 years of innovative research. The interconnectedness of human motivation, behavior, actions, and outcomes with urban ecosystem structure and function leads to a fundamental question addressed by this project. How have/are human-environment interactions mediated by urban ecological infrastructure to shape past, present, and future ecosystem functions? This project will further indicate how we can use knowledge of these relationships to inform more just, transformative, and sustainable futures. Broader societal impacts are intentionally integrated in CAP V research, with many activities involving explicit partnerships with practitioners and communities that historically have had little voice in the future of their city and environment. This work forms a translational link among social-ecological research outcomes, city institutions, and communities with the goal of ultimately making Phoenix, and cities in general, better and more sustainable places to live. CAP research will extend its focus on the theory of Urban Ecological Infrastructure (UEI) as a critical bridge between the system’s biophysical and human/social domains. CAP researchers will continue to explore interdisciplinary urban ecology in residential landscapes, urban waterbodies, desert parks and preserves, while examining the plants, animals, climate, urban design and governance across the metropolitan Phoenix region. New research initiatives will include a focus on environmental justice and equity, as well as urban air quality. The research will develop both knowledge and solutions in underserved and historically neglected communities, including local Indigenous communities. CAP V research is organized around five interdisciplinary areas: 1) ecosystem structure and function and biogeochemical cycling; 2) adaptation and eco-evolutionary dynamics; 3) urban climate, and air quality; 4) urban nature and human perceptions, decisions, and wellbeing; and 5) environmental justice, governance, and transformative futures. Investigating these questions, in the context of the previous 25 years of CAP research, will guide the CAP research endeavor towards more sustainable and resilient futures for U.S. cities and for our increasingly urban society.This award is jointly funded by the Division of Environmental Biology and the Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.