Title:  NSF Funds First Long-Term Studies of Urban Ecology
Date:   October 17, 1997


                                     Embargoed until 6 P.M., EDT
Media contact:                                  October 19, 1997
Cheryl Dybas                                        NSF PR 97-63
(703) 306-1070/cdybas@nsf.gov

Program contact:
Scott Collins
(703) 306-1479/scollins@nsf.gov

                    NSF FUNDS FIRST LONG-TERM
                    STUDIES OF URBAN ECOLOGY

     The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded grants for
two long-term studies of urban ecology, representing the first
attempts ever made to study the long-term ecology of urban
environments.

     Through the NSF grants, scientists may soon have answers to
such questions as: Is an urban existence good for wildlife?  What
is "natural"?  And do ecological relationships operate in as
complex a manner in urban landscapes as in so-called pristine
settings?

     The awards will involve research on urban environments in
the cities of Phoenix, Arizona, and Baltimore, Maryland, through
NSF's Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program.  Phoenix and
Baltimore will soon become the most thoroughly and scientifically
studied urban environments in the world, according to Scott
Collins, director of NSF's LTER program.

     "Factors that control urban ecosystems are not only
environmental, but also social and economic.  These factors and
their interactions need to be considered to understand urban
ecosystems over long time frames and broad spatial scales," says
Collins.

     Scientists affiliated with the new urban LTER sites will
work in several areas, including:

ú  Examining human impacts on land use and land-cover change
   in urban systems, and relating these effects to the overall
   ecosystem;
ú  Monitoring the effects of human-environmental interactions
   in urban systems, and developing appropriate tools (such as
   Geographical Information Systems, or GIS) for data
   collection and analysis of socioeconomic and ecosystem data;
ú  Developing integrated approaches to linking human and
   natural systems in urban ecosystem environments;
ú  Integrating research with local K-12 educational systems.

     The new LTER sites will add two to the previous list of 18
such NSF sites in North America and Antarctica.

     "The previous sites represent a broad array of ecosystems
and research emphases," says Collins.  "But none of the already
existing sites explicitly focuses on human-dominated ecosystems."

     The new NSF grants have been made to Arizona State
University, for the "Central Arizona-Phoenix" urban LTER site,
and to the Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, New York,
for the "Metropolitan Baltimore" urban LTER site.  Scientists at
several other institutions also share in these awards.

     "This is a quantum leap in studying the way the urban
environment works," says ecologist Charles Redman, one of three
Arizona State University directors of the Phoenix site.  "In the
past, people have been concerned with how cities operate, people
have been concerned about the environment, people have been
concerned about movement of goods, but there have been no
projects to look at it all."

     Adds biologist Nancy Grimm, also a Phoenix site director,
"Among scientists, there's no question that humans are now a
driving force in all ecosystems on earth.  As a science, ecology
has traditionally studied what is perceived as 'pristine'
ecosystems.  But there are few ecosystems left that are
unaffected by humans.  There's been a call for ecologists to
begin studying ecosystems that are affected by humans."

     Phoenix and Baltimore were chosen in part because, according
to Collins, they represent two ends of the spectrum, in terms of
their histories.  "Phoenix is changing very quickly, with desert
turning into farmland, industrial and residential sites almost
weekly.  In Phoenix, 'before' and 'after' experiments are possible.
Baltimore, on the other hand, has a history that extends back to the
1700s.  This long history will allow ecologists to look at human
settlements as ecosystems, across three centuries.  The results should
give us a good idea of how humans and the lands they inhabit are
interacting."

     Steward Pickett, director of the Baltimore site and a
scientist at the Institute of Ecosystem Studies, says that "urban
ecosystems are ecology's last frontier.  The knowledge gained
from working on that frontier will strengthen the field of
ecology and enhance its value to people as metropolitan areas
grow."

                              -NSF-

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