Current Research: Urban Landscape Ecology
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The current era of unprecedented urban growth has markedly changed ecosystem structure, function, and biodiversity, and consequently the ecosystem services (ES) our health and wellbeing depend on. To create sustainable, liveable cities, we need to understand where there are opportunities to manage cities for increased ES provision. This requires understanding urban areas as spatially heterogeneous and temporally dynamic ecosystems. As a landscape and ecosystem ecologist, my current research asks how landscape structure, land-use history, and biodiversity impact multiple ecosystem services in urban and urbanizing landscapes.
My research program centers on the ecosystem services concept as a lens through which to ask ecological questions related to sustainability, policy and practice. Within this framework, I use field observation/experiments, advanced sensor data, and synthesis approaches to address basic and applied research questions across spatial and temporal scales. I am a strong proponent of community-engaged science, and much of my research relies upon partnerships with landowners and managers, community groups, local governments, and planners. Read about some of my recent and ongoing work, below: |
My PhD research is part of the NSF Water Sustainability and Climate in the Yahara Watershed project at UW-Madison, where I focus on urban ecosystem services. Listen to a 30min radio interview about my dissertation work, above
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Effects of current and historical land-use on urban ecosystem services
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As cities grow to encompass broader spatial areas, we need ecosystem service assessments that consider the complex spatial heterogeneity and temporal dynamics of urban landscapes. In cooperation with local stakeholder organizations and private homeowners, we measured biophysical indicators of three ES (carbon storage, water quality regulation, runoff regulation) to ask how land-cover, land-use history, and within-land-cover variability affect ES provision in a historically agricultural urban landscape. Our results show that considering the full mosaic of urban greenspace and its history is needed to estimate the kinds and magnitude of ES provided in cities, and to augment regional assessments that may underestimate urban ES supply. These empirical results are consistent with a conceptual framework we developed emphasizing when land-use legacies matter for ES supply in human-dominated landscapes.
This work has been published in Ecological Applications and Landscape Ecology. See my publications page for access. You can also read about our findings in The New York Times! |
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Ongoing research as a Garden Club of America Urban Forestry Fellow uses advanced sensor technology to study the potential of urban forestry to mitigate urban heat island effects. Improving climate adaptation strategies in cities is critical as climate warms, and understanding how spatial variation in temperature aligns with residents’ lived experience is required. Using a custom-developed, mobile temperature sensor and an array of 150 in situ sensors our research asks how variation in impervious surface cover (e.g., roads, parking lots) and canopy cover interact to affect urban air temperature at fine scales. For example, do only large forested areas cool off the city, or can street trees fill this role, too? How much added benefit do trees give compared to grass? Our findings will inform urban planning and contribute to efforts to build more resilient cities in a warming world.
Read about our innovative methods (& other bike-based fieldwork) in Environmental Monitor! |
Biodiversity-ecosystem service relationships
Urban ecosystem services affect the health and wellbeing of over 3.5 billion people who live in cities. However, major syntheses of biodiversity-ES relationships rarely include urban areas. I conducted the first quantitative review focused explicitly on the ecology of urban ES, including the role of biodiversity in service provision. I found that studies typically measure only a single service in one city, precluding assessment of ES synergies, tradeoffs, and cross-city comparisons. I also found that while most studies attribute ES provision to a habitat or land-use type, studies that consider biodiversity-ES relationships are more likely to recognize a specific functional group, community, or population as the key provider of an ES. This work is published in Oikos. See my publications page for access.
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Ongoing research as a National Geographic Explorer explores invasion-ecosystem services linkages in Wisconsin's Yahara region. We conducted reciprocal field experiments to ask how the Asian jumping worm, an incipient urban invader, might interact with established invader common buckthorn, with consequences for ES (e.g., carbon storage, crop production, recreation) in urban and peri-urban landscapes. Contrary to expectations based on well-studied European earthworm species, we found no evidence of co-facilitation, with positive conservation implications (paper coming soon!). Building on this work, I recently led a multi-organization citizen science event: Madison’s first citywide invasive jumping worm survey. At the interface of collaboration, science, and outreach, we connected academics and practitioners across disciplines, engaged many, many community members, and generated a dataset on habitat preference and spatial distribution of this invasive species of conservation concern.
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Check out the Asian jumping worm in action!
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PAST RESEARCH
Forest Fragmentation, Tree Diversity, and Carbon Storage (MSc)
As part of the Monteregie Connection project, my MSc research used a mixture of satellite data, field-based methods, and allometry to investigate the links between forest fragmentation patterns, tree biodiversity, and carbon storage in a temperate agro-ecosystem in the Monteregie, QC.
This work has been published in Ecosphere and Oecologia. See my publications page for access. Check out Alex Tran Photography for incredible photos from the Monteregie Connection project!
As part of the Monteregie Connection project, my MSc research used a mixture of satellite data, field-based methods, and allometry to investigate the links between forest fragmentation patterns, tree biodiversity, and carbon storage in a temperate agro-ecosystem in the Monteregie, QC.
This work has been published in Ecosphere and Oecologia. See my publications page for access. Check out Alex Tran Photography for incredible photos from the Monteregie Connection project!
Effects of Nutrients and Defoliation on Grassland Ecosystem Function (BSc)
As part of a Nutrient Network project, my honours thesis used a combination of mini-rhizotron technology and litter bag experiments to investigate the effects of nutrient additions and defoliation on grassland root dynamics, and the consequences for soil carbon, on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
This work has been published in Ecology. See my publications page for access.
As part of a Nutrient Network project, my honours thesis used a combination of mini-rhizotron technology and litter bag experiments to investigate the effects of nutrient additions and defoliation on grassland root dynamics, and the consequences for soil carbon, on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
This work has been published in Ecology. See my publications page for access.
Thanks to the funders of my research
