/pdf/urbanization-biodiversity-and-ecosystem-services-challenges-4f3lgr1tf4.pdf

Urbanization, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: Challenges and Opportunities: A Global Assessment

Managing and adapting to climate change in urban areas will become increasingly important as urban populations grow, especially because unique features of cities amplify climate change impacts. High impervious cover exacerbates impacts of climate warming through urban heat island effects and of heavy rainfall by magnifying runoff and flooding. Concentration of human settlements along rivers and coastal zones increases exposure of people and infrastructure to climate change hazards, often disproportionately affecting those who are least prepared. Nature-based strategies (NBS), which use living organisms, soils and sediments, and/or landscape features to reduce climate change hazards, hold promise as being more flexible, multi-functional and adaptable to an uncertain and non-stationary climate future than traditional approaches. Nevertheless, future research should address the effectiveness of NBS for reducing climate change impacts and whether they can be implemented at scales appropriate to climate change hazards and impacts. Further, there is a need for accurate and comprehensive cost-benefit analyses that consider disservices and co-benefits, relative to grey alternatives, and how costs and benefits are distributed across different communities. NBS are most likely to be effective and fair when they match the scale of the challenge, are implemented with input from diverse voices and are appropriate to specific social, cultural, ecological and technological contexts. This article is part of the theme issue 'Climate change and ecosystems: threats, opportunities and solutions'.

/pdf/nature-based-approaches-to-managing-climate-change-impacts-4nyupsvtjy.pdf

Nature-based approaches to managing climate change impacts in cities

As urbanization expands city planners and policymakers need to consider how ecological resources can be strategically developed and managed sustainably to meet the needs of urban populations. The ecosystem services (ES) approach provides a useful framework for assessing the status quo, setting goals, identifying benchmarks and prioritizing approaches to improving ecological functioning for urban sustainability and resilience. However, new tools are required for comprehensively evaluating urban ES for ecosystem management and to understand how local and regional trends and plans may affect ES provisioning. We develop an ES assessment methodology that can be used to assess multiple ES of urban green space and integrate them with social conditions in urban neighborhoods. Our approach considers social–ecological conditions and their spatial patterns across the urban landscape. Our analysis focuses on vacant land in New York City. Results suggest that a combined social–ecological approach to ES assessment yields new tools for monitoring and stacking ES. We find that clusters of vacant lots in areas with overlapping low ecological value (e.g. low concentration of green space) and high social need for ES (e.g. high population density) are primarily concentrated in three areas of the city – East Harlem, South Bronx and Central Brooklyn.

Mapping ecosystem services in New York City: Applying a social–ecological approach in urban vacant land

In this study, I examine the influence of urban canopy cover on gene flow between 15 white-footed mouse (Peromyscus leucopus) populations in New York City parklands Parks in the urban core are often highly fragmented, leading to rapid genetic differentiation of relatively nonvagile species However, a diverse array of 'green' spaces may provide dispersal corridors through 'grey' urban infrastructure I identify urban landscape features that promote genetic connectivity in an urban environment and compare the success of two different landscape connectivity approaches at explaining gene flow Gene flow was associated with 'effective distances' between populations that were calculated based on per cent tree canopy cover using two different approaches: (i) isolation by effective distance (IED) that calculates the single best pathway to minimize passage through high-resistance (ie low canopy cover) areas, and (ii) isolation by resistance (IBR), an implementation of circuit theory that identifies all low-resistance paths through the landscape IBR, but not IED, models were significantly associated with three measures of gene flow (Nm from F(ST) , BayesAss+ and Migrate-n) after factoring out the influence of isolation by distance using partial Mantel tests Predicted corridors for gene flow between city parks were largely narrow, linear parklands or vegetated spaces that are not managed for wildlife, such as cemeteries and roadway medians These results have implications for understanding the impacts of urbanization trends on native wildlife, as well as for urban reforestation efforts that aim to improve urban ecosystem processes

/pdf/urban-landscape-genetics-canopy-cover-predicts-gene-flow-48rw182rhn.pdf

Urban landscape genetics: canopy cover predicts gene flow between white-footed mouse (Peromyscus leucopus) populations in New York City.

Summary 1. Mature urban trees improve air quality, reduce storm water run-off and sequester carbon. Municipal agencies establish forests of native juvenile trees to enhance these and other ecosystem services to cities. Little data exist, however, regarding whether these trees will form mature, native forests. 2. We review urban forestry research that deals specifically with the growth, survival and recruitment of new native urban forests and use these data to identify knowledge gaps and propose research needed to create and maintain native urban forests. 3. Experimental urban forestry studies are few and most are of durations ≤5 years, shorter than the 10–25 year time frame required to understand forest stand dynamics. Studies capturing initial dynamics of urban afforestation (≤5 years) identify invasive species as the primary threat to native tree establishment. Data exploring longer-term dynamics are needed to evaluate whether early-stage afforestation dynamics can be used to infer the composition and function of mature urban forests. 4. Synthesis and applications. Urban afforestation approaches–from natural colonization to large-scale plantings–represent a trade-off in cost vs. efficacy for establishing native forests. A major cost-saving strategy would be to determine whether exotics and natives can co-exist and provide the intended ecosystem services.

https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1365-2664.12124

FORUM: Challenges and future directions in urban afforestation

Current forest restoration practices for New York City’s (NYC) MillionTreesNYC Initiative on public parkland include site preparation with extensive invasive species removal and tree and shrub planting with the goal of creating new multi-layered forests. We have launched a longterm investigation of these sites in order to understand the primary physical, chemical, and biological responses of urban ecosystems to MillionTreesNYC forest restoration practices. This research will examine high and low diversity tree and understory planting combinations in permanent experimental forest restoration plots across NYC. The study assesses how the interactions between soil heterogeneity, plant population dynamics, and forest restoration management strategies drive urban forest ecosystem structure and functioning. Working in collaboration with the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation (NYC Parks) and the MillionTreesNYC tree planting campaign, we are examining different restoration strategies to assess how restoration practices affect the ecological development trajectories of newly established forests in NYC.

/pdf/assessing-the-effects-of-the-urban-forest-restoration-effort-3zzwee8j9b.pdf

Assessing the Effects of the Urban Forest Restoration Effort of MillionTreesNYC on the Structure and Functioning of New York City Ecosystems

Afforestation projects are a growing focus of urban restoration efforts to rehabilitate degraded landscapes and develop new forests. Urban forests provide myriad valuable ecosystem services essential for urban sustainability and resilience. These essential services are supported by natural soil microbial processes that transform organic matter to critical nutrients for plant community establishment and development. Nitrogen (N) is the most limiting nutrient in forest ecosystems, yet little is known about N cycling in urban afforestation efforts. This study examined microbially-mediated processes of carbon (C) and N cycling in 10 experimental afforested sites established across New York City parklands under the MillionTreesNYC initiative. Long-term research plots were established between 2009-2011 at each site with low and high diversity (two versus six tree species) treatments. In 2018, 1-meter soil cores were collected from plots at each site and analyzed for microbial biomass and respiration, potential net N mineralization and nitrification, denitrification potential, soil inorganic N, and total soil N. Field observations revealed markedly different trajectories between sites that exhibited a closed canopy and leaf litter layer derived from trees that were planted, and those that did not fit this description. These two metrics served to group sites into two categories (high versus low) of afforestation success. We hypothesized that: 1) afforestation success would be correlated with rates of C and N cycling, 2) high diversity restoration techniques would affect these processes, and 3) inherent soil properties interact with plants and environmental conditions to affect the development of these processes over time. We found that high success sites had significantly higher rates of C and N cycling processes, but low and high diversity treatments showed no differences. Low success sites were more likely to have disturbed soil profiles with human-derived debris. Afforestation success appears to be driven by interactions between initial site conditions that facilitate plant community establishment and development that in turn enable N accumulation and cycling, creating positive feedbacks for success.

Nitrogen cycling and urban afforestation success in New York City.

Soil carbon sequestration in urban afforestation sites in New York City

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Assessing the Effects of the Urban Forest Restoration Effort of MillionTreesNYC on the Structure and Functioning of New York City Ecosystems

Nitrogen cycling and urban afforestation success in New York City.

Soil carbon sequestration in urban afforestation sites in New York City