CUERE Seminar Series - Dr. Rebecca Hale

UMBC, Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education

Fall 2022 Seminar Series 

virtually presents

Dr. Rebecca Hale

Smithsonian Environmental Research Center 

“Ecosystem consequences of urban design from local to continental scales”

Friday, December 9, 2022

2:00 PM

WebEx Link

This seminar series is free and open to the public.

This is the final seminar for 2022. See you next year! 

Abstract

Cities are designed ecosystems: nearly all elements of cities are designed by humans, from soils, to hydrology, to the biological community. As a result, understanding the linkages between hydrologic changes, biogeochemical changes, and society is critical for understanding any one part of that system. In this talk, I will use three case studies to explore the question: how does urban design affect material transport and transformation from urban watersheds at local to macrosystem scales? In Phoenix, AZ, the transition from conveyance to retention stormwater management paradigms through time has led to spatial and temporal variation in nutrient and water fluxes from urban watersheds. In southeastern Idaho, shifts in the composition and density of urban street-side tree planting generates spatial and temporal patterns in potential nutrient fluxes from the urban canopy. At continental scales, cities vary along biophysical, social, and built gradients. These gradients are likely to generate variation in the local controls on ecosystem patterns and processes, such as carbon cycling. In a new project, we are evaluating the spatial and temporal controls on organic carbon sources and processing in five major cities across the US, and how those vary within and among cities. Urbanization dramatically changes the nature of aquatic organic carbon, but the patterns and mechanisms of these changes vary among cities. Urban ecosystems respond to multidimensional changes at local to global scales, and combining local, place-based research with macro-scale comparative studies can help disentangle cross-scale controls on ecosystem functions.