| NSF Org: |
DEB Division Of Environmental Biology |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | February 12, 2013 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | February 12, 2013 |
| Award Number: | 1318655 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Douglas Levey
DEB Division Of Environmental Biology BIO Directorate for Biological Sciences |
| Start Date: | February 15, 2013 |
| End Date: | January 31, 2015 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $157,768.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $157,768.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
2601 WOLF VILLAGE WAY RALEIGH NC US 27695-0001 (919)515-2444 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
Campus Box 7613 Raleigh NC US 27695-7613 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | POP & COMMUNITY ECOL PROG |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.074 |
ABSTRACT
The frequency of extreme weather events is predicted to increase due to global climate change. Hurricane Sandy devastated New York City (NYC) with high winds, rain, and storm surge. The human and economic toll of this storm was record-breaking but the ecological toll is unknown. Arthropods, such as insects and spiders, are the most abundant and diverse animals in cities. They perform many important services, such as decomposing human refuse, but they can also be pests of buildings and plants. The goal of this work is to understand how Hurricane Sandy changed arthropod communities in New York City and how these changes affect the services or disservices they provide.
Urban arthropod communities consist of native and exotic species. They exist in stressful habitats, such as road medians, but also in less stressful habitats such as parks. Ecological theories predict that exotic species should become more abundant and native species less abundant after big disturbances like Hurricane Sandy. Other theories predict that animals living in stressful habitats should be more resilient to disturbances than animals living in less stressful habitats. Perhaps changes in insect species that occur in an area after a hurricane will upset food webs and reduce the beneficial services they provide. Likewise, disturbances may allow populations of some pest species to explode because they are no longer kept in check by predators. This research work will reveal what actually happens.
This work is important for understanding how plants and animals in urban environments will respond to increased human populations and to potentially more and stronger hurricanes associated with climate change. The work will be conducted in in public areas, where the investigators will regularly interact with the citizens of NYC and explain to them what they are doing. They will also create a dedicated website and provide public presentations to increase public understanding of urban ecology, global change, and related topics.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
How does urban habitat and storm disturbance affect refuse consumption by urban animals?
We examined consumption of littered food waste by arthropods. This ecosystem service is relevant to urban public health and esthetics but has never really been studied. No one has asked, “what happens to food we drop on the street?” Theory and data from natural systems predict that in habitats with more biological diversity more food (usually measured as herbivory or predation) should be eaten. But, cities are not natural habitats and we were not measuring consumption of natural foods.
We measured food removal by placing cookies, potato chips, and hot dogs in Manhattan street medians and parks. At the same sites, we assessed ground-arthropod diversity and abiotic conditions, including flooding during Hurricane Sandy prior to the study.
Arthropod diversity was greater in parks than in medians (11 vs. 9 hexapod families) and ant diversity nearly doubled (4.7 vs. 2.7 ant species per site). However, counter to diversity-based prediction, arthropods in medians removed 2–3 times more food per day than arthropods in parks. Surprisingly flooding had little effect on arthropod communities or food removal. Instead, one big-eater seemed to be driving food removal. That was the introduced pavement ant (Tetramorium sp. E). When this species was present more food got eaten. In some cases, arthropods consumed nearly as much food as vertebrates.
We estimate that arthropods alone could remove 4–6.5 kg of food per year in a single street median, reducing its availability to less desirable fauna such as rats. Thus, even small green spaces such as street medians provide ecosystem services that may complement those of larger habitat patches like parks, and help keep cities clean.
Last Modified: 03/26/2015
Modified by: Steven Frank
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