Advances in urban ecology : integrating humans and ecological processes in urban ecosystems

The greatest challenge for urban ecologists in the next few decades is to understand the role that humans play in urban ecosystems. So far, research on the dynamics of urban development and ecosystems has proceeded separately; neither disciplinary approach has adequately addressed the processes and variables that couple them. The development of an integrated urban ecological approach is crucial to advance ecological research and to help planners and managers to solve complex urban environmental issues. This book seeks to meet these needs by providing a conceptual framework to synthesize urban and ecological dynamics into a common framework. Natural and social scientists face a great challenge in the coming decades: to understand the role that humans play in ecosystems, particularly urban ecosystems. Cities and urbanizing regions are complex coupled hum- natural systems in which people are the dominant agents. As humans transform natural landscapes into highly human-dominated environments, they create a new set of ecological conditions by changing ecosystem processes and dynamics. Urbanization changes natural habitats and species composition, alters hydrological systems, and modifies energy flows and nutrient cycles. Although the impacts of urban development on ecosystems occur locally, they cause environmental changes at larger scales. Envir- mental changes resulting from urbanization influence human behaviors and dynamics and affect human health and well-being. Remarkable progress has been made in studying the impact of urban de- lopment on ecosystem functions (McDonnell and Pickett 1993, McDonnell et al. 1997, Grimm et al. 2000, Pickett et al. 2001, Alberti et al. 2003), yet the interactions and feedback between human processes and ecosystem dynamics in urbanizing regions are still poorly understood. In this book I argue that new syntheses across the natural and social sciences are necessary if urban and ecological dynamics are to be successfully integrated into a common fra- work to advance urban ecology research. If we remain within the traditional disciplinary boundaries, we will not make progress towards a theory of urban ecosystems as coupled human-ecological systems, because no single disc- line can provide an unbiased and integrated perspective. "The future of Earth's ecosystems is increasingly influenced by the pace and patterns of urbanization. One of the greatest challenges for natural and social scientists is to understand how urbanizing regions evolve through the complex interactions between humans and ecological processes. Questions and methods of inquiry specific to our traditional disciplinary domains yield partial views that reflect different epistemologies and understandings of the world. In order to achieve the level of synthesis required to see the urban ecosystem as a whole we must change the way we pose questions and search for answers." "Cities are the result of human and ecological processes occurring simultaneously in time and in space and the legacy of the simultaneous processes of the past. Urban ecology is the study of the co-evolution of human-ecological systems. Scholars of both urban systems and ecology must challenge the assumptions and world views within their disciplines and work towards a hybrid theory that builds on multiple world views." "The synthesis of research findings provided in this book is a first step towards articulating the challenge for scholars of urban ecosystems; it leads the way toward the integration we must achieve if we are to better understand and solve emerging issues in urban ecosystems."--Jacket This groundbreaking work is an attempt at providing a conceptual framework to synthesize urban and ecological dynamics into a common framework. The greatest challenge for urban ecologists in the next few decades is to understand the role humans play in urban ecosystems. The development of an integrated urban ecological approach is crucial to advance ecological research and to help planners and managers solve complex urban environmental issues. This book is a major step forward. Marina Alberti. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.