OPUS: MCS: The emergence of large-scale patterns of biodiversity from interactions between people, their yards, and urban wildlife

University Of Illinois At Chicago, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

Residential yards and gardens provide many physical and mental benefits to urban residents. They may also be particularly important spaces for urban wildlife. Collectively, they can contain most of the vegetation in North American cities. Urban gardens serve as vital habitat for birds, bees, and other animals. Some yards are dominated by turf grass while others are more lush and diverse, with layers of vegetation, flowering plants, and features intended to attract wildlife. The choices that people make in their yards can vary widely, but it is known that people?s choices are influenced by their neighbors as well as by the wildlife they see in their neighborhoods. This research will use a modeling approach to examine the choices that people make in their yards. It will study the consequences of these choices for wildlife habitat, including the biodiversity of birds and bees. A model will be developed to investigate future changes in residential yards and gardens. The project will make recommendations about how yards can provide the most benefit for birds and bees. The model will also be used to educate school children, college students, and the public about the importance of their yards and gardens for biodiversity. Together, humans, their yards, and urban wildlife form a complex, coupled human and natural system. Such systems are often nonlinear, contain feedbacks and thresholds, and shift from one state to another over time and across space. The ecological impacts of these dynamics may not be immediately observable or predictable because of time lags. This research will use empirical data gathered over the last ten years in the metro area of Chicago, Illinois to parameterize an agent-based model. The model will examine the spatio-temporal dynamics of an urban residential ecosystem under the influence of residents? landscaping choices. In particular, the model will examine feedbacks between people, their yards, and urban wildlife. It will test the idea that those feedbacks might switch from positive to negative depending on the abundance of wildlife in a neighborhood. The model will be used to explore patterns at larger spatial and temporal scales than can be examined empirically. It will examine the impacts of various scenarios that might affect bird and bee communities across the landscape. Thus, the model will identify emergent phenomena in urban biodiversity that result from local-scale interactions between individual agents. 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.