ABSTRACT

For about 20 years, researchers with the Baltimore Long-Term Environmental Research (LTER) project have studied ecology within the city of Baltimore. When it started, the Baltimore LTER project was highly unusual because most ecologists were working in more natural environments. This was one of the very first urban ecology sites. A long-term approach was needed for urban ecology because changes happen slowly and important events can be rare in urban ecosystems. The team of scientists made many ground-breaking discoveries about nature in cities. They figured out the basics of how an urban ecosystem works. For example, they discovered how nutrients such as nitrogen flow through steams and are affected by lawns. They also studied plants, mosquitoes and birds. Results of these studies remain important for improving environmental quality in cities and for helping reduce the global impact of human activities. The latter is especially important because most humans live in cities. LTER scientists have worked closely with teachers and students in Baltimore to share their findings and engage a new generation in ecological discoveries. This proposal provides support for the final three years of the Baltimore LTER project.

Research at the Baltimore LTER site has focused on natural exogenous drivers, interacting with urban ecosystem structure to influence function. Exogenous drivers include climate, species introductions, and economy; urban ecosystem structure includes physical, biological, social, and built components; and response functions include watershed biogeochemistry, the composition of ecological communities, and human environmental decision making. This framework was used to address questions about sources and sinks of water and nutrients in urban watersheds, ecological communities and their capacity to change over time, and environmental perceptions and behaviors of households and organizations over the long term. During this final phase of the Baltimore LTER project, the following activities will take place: 1) processing and analysis of final samples, with limited new data collection; 2) ensuring data availability in perpetuity; 3) analyzing and synthesizing data; 4) preparing publications that use and present BES datasets; 5) developing a stable and static website that describes the 20 year history of the project and provides links to data, publications and other resources; and 6) decommissioning of long-term field sites in Baltimore.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

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