Understanding the effects of urbanization on biodiversity and ecological function is a critical research need. Addressing this topic will not only help maintain important ecosystem services for cities— the places that most of the world’s people now call “home”— but also improve regional and global conservation efforts. Indeed, urban ecosystems may prove to be harbingers of broad ecological change and through their study we may better anticipate, understand, and address the global conservation and environmental challenges of tomorrow. With this perspective my research asks: 1) How do urban conditions impact ecological function, from population and community dynamics to landscape processes and interactions; and 2) How can we adapt planning, design, and management practices to address urban and climate associated impacts and improve the long-term sustainability of urban greenspaces? I address these theoretical and applied questions at multiple scales and through innovative methods that range from field experiments, to meta-analyses, and modeling.
Urban forests comprise “all trees in the city, on public and private property, and within the many land uses one finds in cities and towns” (NUFAC USFS 2015). Frequently overlooked in cities, however, are the forested natural areas amongst the trees. I would argue that urban forest natural areas meet the criteria and traditional defintions of forests, and therefore, opportunity exists to draw from rural forest management and silviculture methods to reposition urban forested natural area management. With this understanding, I have developed research experiments that test novel conservation strategies designed to facilitate the establishment of native forest communities in urban and degraded sites.
A fundamental objective of my research is to advance mechanistic understanding within urban ecology. Recent research suggests that plant community diversity shifts across urban-rural gradients, however there is limited understanding of the key ecological processes and urban drivers, such as heat island, biotic invasion, pollution, and human activity, behind these observations. To address this knowledge gap I have developed an urban plant recruitment limitation framework (pictured) and am leading a long-term study comparing plant recruitment dynamics, including seed production, seed dispersal and seed predation through to early-establishment, in urban forest natural areas and rural forests, located in New York City and the New York Highlands.
Which species persist in cities? Which don’t? Do cities experience biotic homogenization? To what extent is regional biodiversity represented in urban areas? What are the conditions that enable higher biodiversity?
As a member of the NSF-funded UrBioNet, I am actively engaged in the synthesis and metanalysis of global research on urban biodiversity patterns, including the impact of different urban drivers on taxonomic and functional trait diversity across multiple taxa.
The benefits of green roofs are derived from their existence as functional, living ecosystems. While the architectural elements of a green roof assembly can be thought of as fixed, the biological components of a roof, its vegetation and growing media, are dynamic. This research monitors more than 10 years of green roof plant community dynamics on green roofs located on university buildings throughout the northeast. These building/roofs were designed by, and the research conducted in partnership with, KieranTimberlake, an innovative architecture firm located in Philadelphia, and where I worked as a member of the research group from 2012-2014.
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