Urban ecosystems and the North American carbon cycle

Pataki, Diane E.; Alig, Ralph J.; Fung, Alan S.; Golubiewski, Nancy E.; Kennedy, Christopher; McPherson, E. Gregory; Nowak, David J.; Pouyat, Richard V.; Lankao, Patricia Romero

doi:10.1111/j.1365-2486.2006.01242.x

Cited by 385 publications

(256 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…Atmospheric CO 2 can increase tree growth through carbon fertilization (30). Trees have shown speciesspecific increases in growth under elevated CO 2 , but nutrient and Average Plot AGB (Mg ha -1 ) Fig.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence for a recent increase in forest growth

McMahon

Parker

Miller

2010

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

351

274

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Forests and their soils contain the majority of the earth's terrestrial carbon stocks. Changes in patterns of tree growth can have a huge impact on atmospheric cycles, biogeochemical cycles, climate change, and biodiversity. Recent studies have shown increases in biomass across many forest types. This increase has been attributed to climate change. However, without knowing the disturbance history of a forest, growth could also be caused by normal recovery from unknown disturbances. Using a unique dataset of tree biomass collected over the past 22 years from 55 temperate forest plots with known land-use histories and stand ages ranging from 5 to 250 years, we found that recent biomass accumulation greatly exceeded the expected growth caused by natural recovery. We have also collected over 100 years of local weather measurements and 17 years of on-site atmospheric CO 2 measurements that show consistent increases in line with globally observed climate-change patterns. Combined, these observations show that changes in temperature and CO 2 that have been observed worldwide can fundamentally alter the rate of critical natural processes, which is predicted by biogeochemical models. Identifying this rate change is important to research on the current state of carbon stocks and the fluxes that influence how carbon moves between storage and the atmosphere. These results signal a pressing need to better understand the changes in growth rates in forest systems, which influence current and future states of the atmosphere and biosphere. T he movement of carbon in our atmosphere, oceans, and terrestrial ecosystems is critical to predicting how climate change may influence the natural systems on which humans rely (1-4). Changes in ecosystems can, in turn, feed back into global atmospheric cycles through evapotranspiration, net ecosystem CO 2 exchange, and surface albedo and roughness, which complicates predictions about future climate states (1, 5-7). Key evidence that global changes may affect the functioning of forests is shown in changes in forest biomass over time, which can have important implications for whether or not forests accumulate biomass at a rate that would alter current trends of atmospheric carbon cycling (8).In densely forested regions across the globe, forests can recover rapidly from agricultural fields, logged stands, or areas cleared because of natural disturbances as long as remnant patches or seed banks remain. Across forest types, the period of recovery consists of a rapid rise in above-ground biomass (AGB) followed by a leveling off as the canopy fills in and biomass shifts from the sum of many small stems to fewer, larger canopy trees. The rate and asymptote of this pattern of biomass recovery can differ across stands because of nutrient availability and species composition or can differ between regions because of climate and disturbance regimens; however, the functional form of this response remains similar across forest types and regions (9, 10).There are indications that forest biomass accumulation...

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence for a recent increase in forest growth

McMahon

Parker

Miller

2010

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

351

274

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“…The carbon emission in various maintenance activities via fossil fuel combustion may offset some of the biological carbon uptake by turfgrass. Therefore, a complete carbon balance of the whole urban turfgrass ecosystem is needed to include both drivers of fossil fuel emissions and carbon cycling in plants and soils [49].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimating Net Primary Production of Turfgrass in an Urban-Suburban Landscape with QuickBird Imagery

Bauer

2012

Remote Sensing

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Vegetation is a basic component of urban-suburban environments with significant area coverage. As a major vegetation type in US cities, urban turfgrass provides a range of important ecological services. This study examined the biological carbon fixation of turfgrass in a typical residential neighborhood by linking ground-based measurements, high resolution satellite remote sensing, and ecological modeling. The spatial distribution of turfgrass and its vegetative conditions were mapped with QuickBird satellite imagery. The significant amount of shadows existing in the imagery were detected and removed by taking advantage of the high radiometric resolution of the data. A remote sensing-driven production efficiency model was developed and parameterized with field biophysical measurements to estimate annual net primary production of turfgrass. The results indicated that turfgrass accounted for 38% of land cover in the study area. Turfgrass assimilated 0-1,301 g·C·m ). However, lawn grass contributed more to the total net primary production than golf course grass due to its larger area coverage, although with higher spatial variability.

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“…Therefore, it is essential to better understand the carbon dynamics of urban ecosystem, rather than relying on the assumption of static carbon stocks. In other words, it is not very important to account for the proportion of total carbon stocks at a regional scale that is stored in urban areas (Liu and Li, 2012); instead, it is necessary to quantify gradient changes in terrestrial carbon stocks in response to urban land use and cover change (Patak et al, 2006;Alberti and Hutyra, 2009;Hutyra et al, 2011b;Ren et al, 2011;Zhang et al, 2012), which is vital for understanding the effectiveness of policy implementations for preservation of carbon stocks in urban areas.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Variation in ecosystem services across an urbanization gradient: A study of terrestrial carbon stocks from Changzhou, China

Liu³

et al. 2015

Ecological Modelling

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a b s t r a c tEcosystem services in urban areas are regarded as multiple environmental benefits fostered by urban-rural landscapes. A wide range of ecosystem services have been largely affected by land use and cover change in urban areas, leading to significant variation of ecosystem services, such as terrestrial carbon stocks across a gradient of urbanization. Urban areas are critical for terrestrial carbon dynamics owing to both considerable amount of biomass and soil carbon stored in cities and significant losses in carbon stocks from urban land use and cover change. We used Changzhou, a typical fast-growing city in China, as a case study, and estimated biomass and soil carbon stored in land covers using the InVEST model. We also quantified gradient changes in terrestrial carbon stocks in response to urban land use and cover change along two sample transects as a function of distance from the urban center. We found that carbon densities decreased with increasing intensity of urban development. Gradient transect analyses revealed an overall trend of increasing carbon stocks from the urban center to peri-urban areas as a direct result of land use and cover change driven by policy-oriented urban planning, which led to both infilling of empty areas within the urban center and sprawling of urban land toward peri-urban areas. As recent growth trends continue, the expansion of urban land markedly decreased areas previously dominated by green open spaces, making urban land use and cover change and losses in carbon stocks an increasingly important component of regional carbon dynamics. We proposed measures to mitigate these negative effects of urbanization on carbon stocks both for densely built-up areas and for rapidly urbanizing peri-urban areas.

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Urban ecosystems and the North American carbon cycle

Cited by 385 publications

References 69 publications

Evidence for a recent increase in forest growth

Evidence for a recent increase in forest growth

Estimating Net Primary Production of Turfgrass in an Urban-Suburban Landscape with QuickBird Imagery

Variation in ecosystem services across an urbanization gradient: A study of terrestrial carbon stocks from Changzhou, China

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