OOS 4 - Toward Sustainable and Just Cities: Developing and Applying a Mechanistic Understanding of Urban Ecosystems

Organizer(s)

• 

  Daniel Forrest, B.S.

  PhD student
  University of British Columbia
  Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Co-Organizer(s)

• AA

  Aaron Aguirre

  Graduate Research Assistant
  University of British Columbia, British Columbia, Canada
• KC

  Kai Chan

  Professor and Canada Research Chair
  IRES, University of British Columbia
  Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Though largely unrecognized, the growth of cities – which host over half the world’s human population – is now a leading cause of biodiversity loss, on par with agriculture and forestry. In converting green spaces to built environments and contributing to biological homogenization, urbanization processes also contribute to the loss of nature’s benefits to people in cities. Urban landscapes have the potential to foster important - and frequent - human-nature connections close to home. However, the continued loss of urban green spaces and other vegetation reduces cities’ potential for growing mutually beneficial human-nature relationships. Moreover, the green spaces that remain or are being restored are generally less accessible to poor and marginalized communities. The field of urban ecology has grown rapidly over the last two decades as a response to the above, with many ecologists seeking to inform urban decision-making to make cities more sustainable and just. However, urban ecological research must grow further to fulfill this need.

First, the processes and interactions which structure ecological communities and determine biodiversity in human-dominated environments are only beginning to be understood. Though ecologists have long recognized the importance of indirect effects (e.g., the impact of one entity on another that is mediated or transmitted by a third) in structuring communities in wild spaces, most studies in urban areas still focus on direct effects.

Second, we are only beginning to produce information that is relevant, accessible, and/or useful to urban decision-makers. Research co-design and knowledge co-production have emerged as a means to unify the work and impact of researchers and decision-makers, but both are still rarely practiced by urban ecologists.

Lastly, creating sustainable and just cities necessitates the involvement of people affected by these decisions and other forms of knowledge (working, cultural, Indigenous, etc.) throughout the research and decision-making processes.

Addressing these gaps requires an emerging urban ecological research agenda that: 1) uncovers the mechanisms, including direct and indirect effects, determining community composition and biodiversity loss in urban ecosystems, and 2) integrates science and practice through close collaborations between scientists, practitioners, and affected peoples to better inform urban decision-making and transform cities into havens for humans and nature. In this session, we will bring together scientists and practitioners to present work that contributes to this agenda, including research co-design, knowledge co-production, and mechanistic urban ecology.

Presentations:

• 1:30 PM – 1:45 PM PDT

  The hidden ecology of urban garbage: Food waste may indirectly simplify urban bird communities
  

  Presenting Author: Daniel L. Forrest, B.S. – University of British Columbia

  Co-author: Harold N. Eyster, PhD – University of Vermont

  Co-author: Matthew G. E. Mitchell, Ph.D. – University of British Columbia

  Co-author: Kai M. A. Chan – IRES, University of British Columbia
• 1:45 PM – 2:00 PM PDT

  Social-ecological factors facilitating coexistence among wildlife and people in a desert city
  

  Presenting Author: Jeffrey D. Haight, M.S. – Arizona State University

  Co-author: Kelli L. Larson – Arizona State University

  Co-author: Jeffrey A. Brown – La Salle University

  Co-author: Sharon J. Hall – Arizona State University

  Co-author: Jesse S. Lewis – Arizona State University
• 2:00 PM – 2:15 PM PDT

  Integrating data on human values, birds, trees, and climate to advance urban socio-ecological justice
  

  Presenting Author: Harold N. Eyster, PhD – University of Vermont

  Co-author: Rachelle K. Gould – University of Vermont

  Co-author: Daniel L. Forrest, B.S. – University of British Columbia

  Co-author: Kai M. A. Chan – IRES, University of British Columbia

  Co-author: Brian Beckage – University of Vermont
• 2:15 PM – 2:30 PM PDT

  Equity in access to positive human-bird interactions in urban gardens in San Francisco
  

  Presenting Author: Kelley E. Langhans – Stanford University

  Co-author: Alejandra Echeverri, Ph.D. – Stanford University

  Co-author: Meggie Callahan – University of Washington

  Co-author: Oliver Nguyen – Department of Biology, Stanford University

  Co-author: Maya Xu – Stanford University

  Co-author: Nicole Ardoin – Stanford University

  Co-author: Gretchen C. Daily – Stanford University
• 2:30 PM – 2:45 PM PDT

  Greening Equitably Through Positive Transformations: addressing legacies of injustice with community engaged research to action
  

  Presenting Author: Zbigniew Grabowski, PhD – University of Connecticut

  Co-author: Timon McPhearson – Urban Systems Lab, The New School

  Co-author: Steward T.A. Pickett, n/a – Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies