The Baltimore Ecosystem Study: From Sanitary to Sustainable City

ABSTRACT -- Phase III of BES:•Builds on prior use of the watershed, patch dynamics, and human ecosystem concepts.• Focuses on how evolving policies for sustainability affect social and biophysical adaptive processes.• Uses a resilience framework to examine the feedbacks between biogeophysical and social processes.• Exemplifies urban metacommunity dynamics, the urban stream dis/continuum, and locational choices.

Forest area stable while patch size decreases• Zhou, W., G. Huang, S.T.A. Pickett, & M.L. Cadenasso. 2011. 90 years of forest cover change in the urbanizing Gwynns Falls watershed, Baltimore, Maryland: spatial and temporal dynamics. Landscape Ecology 26:645-659

Contact: picketts@caryinstitute.org .

S.T.A. Pickett, K.T. Belt, A.R. Berkowitz, N. Bettez, M.L. Cadenasso, B. Caplan, P.M. Groffman,J.M. Grove, S.S. Kaushal, D. Nowak, M. Romolini, A. Troy

Sustainability Plans: A New Environment

What are the effects of adaptive processes aimed at sustainability in the Baltimore socio-ecological system?

• How do biophysical & social adaptive processes interact in the sanitary city vs. the sustainable city?• How do adaptive processes change to reflect policies aimed at sustainability in Baltimore?• How can information exchange, education, & urban design improve adaptive processes?

Generates a New Guiding Question:

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Urban tree canopy decreasing in US cities• Tree cover in 17 of 20 cities had statistically significant declines in tree cover, while 16 cities had statistically significant increases in impervious cover. • Only Syracuse, NY had a statistically significant increase in tree cover over time. • Nowak, D.J. and E.J. Greenfield. 2012. Tree and impervious cover change in U.S. cities. Urban Forestry and Urban Greening. 11:21-30.

Heat island hotspots hit the disadvantaged• Land surface temperature is statistically higher in block groups that are characterized by low income, high poverty, less education, more ethnic minorities, more elderly people and greater risk of crime. •Huang, G., W. Zhou, & M.L. Cadenasso. 2011. Is everyone hot in the city?: Spatial pattern of land surface temperatures, land cover, and neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics in Baltimore, City, MD. Jour. Environ. Manage. 92:1753-1759.

More trees, less crime• Tree canopy cover is inversely related to the incidence of robbery, burglary, shooting and theft.• This result was unaffected by spatial autocorrelation, socio-economic status, housing type and age, amount of protected agricultural land, and urban/rural status. • The few neighborhoods with a positive relationship had an extensive interface zone between residential and industrial uses where unmanaged trees grow.• Troy, A. J.M. Grove & J. O’Neil-Dunne. 2012. The Relationship between Tree Canopy and Crime Rates across an Urban-Rural Gradient in the Greater Baltimore Region, Lands. Urban Plann. 106: 262-270.

An urban stream dis/continuum explains city & suburban stream processes• Urban watersheds suffer from both hydrological disconnection in some places, and increased hydrological connection in others. This drives unique urban hydrology.• There are increases in organic carbon as water flows from low-density residential areas in headwaters through progressively urbanizing areas with storm drains, sewage leaks, and algal blooms. • Changes in quantity and quality of organic carbon along the urban watershed continuum can increase organic carbon exports downstream and affect ecosystem functions.• See below for citation.

Altered DOM Amounts & Bioavailability: Storm Drains Sewage Leaks

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Natural DOM Amounts and Quality:Terrestrial Vegetation

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Urban Watershed Continuum Natural Watershed Continuum

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Stream contamination reflects the continuum• Contaminants can be substantially elevated in storm drains compared to forest and suburban streams. • Contamination in dense city storm drains exceeds EPA limits.• Kaushal, S.S. & K.T. Belt. 2012. The urban watershed continuum: evolving spatial and temporal dimensions. Urban Ecosystems 15:409-435

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Baltimore LTER Site: Forest Streams vs. Storm Drains

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Stormwater detention basins are also adaptive for N mitigation• Although stormwater detention basins are designed for hydrological mitigation, denitrification potential can be higher there than in native riparian zones. • Neil Bettez & Peter Groffman, submitted.

Education Research• What are the pathways of student learning from the primary discourse children learn out of school (force dynamic reasoning), to the scientific discourse they learn in school (model-based reasoning)?• Bess Caplan & Alan Berkowitz

Stewardship Networks Share Information & Resources• The 10 largest nodes in the stewardship information network hold 53% of links.• Policy makers can use this knowledge to target messages to these hub organizations.• Individual outreach is required for groups not connected to the hubs. • Michele Romolini, Univ. of Vermont & J.M. Grove, USDA Forest Service

Denitrification potential in five types of stormwater detention basins: SM = shallow marsh, DP = dry detention ponds, EDSD = extended det. structure , IB = infiltration basin, E = filtration basin) and Two types of natural riparian zones Herb = herbaceous, Fors = forested

Summer 2011