11.S938: Urban Ecology: Plants, People and Climate Change
Professor: Peter Del Tredici
Tues/Thrs: 2-3:30; Credits: 3-0-9 G; location: 9-450B
Description
Urban ecology can be distinguished from its natural systems counterpart by the inseparable blend of human culture and natural history. Mastering the discipline requires dealing not only with issues related to the quality of air, water and soil as modified by humans, but also with the complex economic, social, and cultural systems that organizethe flow of energy and raw materials throughout metropolitan areas. Urban habitats are characterized by high levels of disturbance, impervious paving, and heat retention that alter environmental conditions in ways that promote the growth of stress-tolerant, early successional plants that have become the de facto native vegetation of cities worldwide. This course examines how the interacting forces of urbanization, globalization and climate change have shaped the ecology of our cities and how planning, design and management strategies can enhance the social, cultural and environmental value of these "emergent" ecosystems.
Course Objectives
There is considerable pressure for Architects and Urban Planners to produce more "sustainable" designs. While part of this need can be met by making new buildings more efficient, an equally important part of sustainability involves the landscape surrounding the building. Architects and Planners are woefully unprepared to deal with the reality of sustainable landscape design beyond the creation of ornamental landscapes dominated by lawns, trees and flowers. This course will focus on understanding the basics of urban ecology first and foremost--especially plants--and then move into issues of how to manipulate this ecology to create functional landscapes that are in balance with the resources available to maintain them.
Class Structure
The class meets twice per week for 1.5 hours with Tuesdays being devoted mainly to lectures and Thursdays devoted to lectures, field trips and discussion.
Readings are arranged by the week and beginning with Week 2 and ending with Week 12, students are expected to produce a 500-word (approximately) summary/reaction to the readings of the week. A printed version of the reading summary/reaction is due on Thursday of each week (i.e. Week 2 summaries are due on the Thursday of Week 2).
Final Projects: Students are expected to produce a research paper on some aspect of urban ecology that is of particular interest to them based on readings done in class or their own personal experience. Research papers should be no more than 20 pages long (4 to 5,000 words) not including illustrations and references. Students are also free to produce a paper that investigates the ecology and natural history of a specific natural area within the Boston metropolitan area that may have potential for mitigating the future impacts of climate change. Site-specific projects will require the prior approval of Prof. Del Tredici.
Field Trips: Three local field trips have been scheduled for the class; two are within walking distance of MIT and one will require a ride on the subway
Grades:Class participation & attendance: 20%
Reading Reactions:30%
Final Project:50%
Schedule of Lecture Topics
Week 1:Thursday, Sept 8: Introduction to urban ecology, to myself and the course
Tuesday, Sept 13: Natural systems ecology: concept of soil; soil forming processes; soil particles; soil chemistry (pH)
Thursday, Sept 15: Soil as a living system; mineral nutrient cycling; microbes, soil animals & organic matter
Week 2: Tuesday, Sept 20: Natural systems ecology: forest structure & development
Thursday, Sept 22: Ecological succession & disturbance ecology
Week 3: Tuesday, Sept 27: Urban ecology: soil, water & air conditions; cities as novel ecosystems
Thursday, Sept 29: Field trip (local)
Week 4: Tuesday, Oct 4: Urban ecology: pollution & its remediation
Thursday, Oct. 6: Urban watersheds & impervious surfaces
Week 5: Tuesday, Oct 11: No class Columbus Day holiday
Thursday, Oct 13: Urban ecology: animals
Week 6:Tuesday, Oct 18: Urban ecology: cosmopolitan plants
Thursday, Oct 20: Field trip: Bussey Brook Meadow (Arnold Arboretum)
Week 7:Tuesday, Oct 25: Urban turf: lawns and meadows in an urban context; freedom lawn v. industrial lawn
Thursday, Oct 27: Invasive species and novel ecosystems; human perceptions of nature; ecological restoration
Week 8: Tuesday, Nov 1: Courtney Humphries: communicating about urban ecology and climate change
Thursday, Nov 3: Field trip (local)
Week 9: Tuesday, Nov 8:Adaptive management (trial & error) vs. maintenance; process-oriented planting strategies; the problem of vacant urban land in shrinking cities
Thursday, Nov 10: Architectural ecology: landscapes on top of structure; manufactured / structural soils
Week 10: Tuesday, Nov 15: Urban trees: what they can and cannot do for you
Thursday, Nov 17: Lucy Hutyra (Boston University): the urban carbon cycle
Week 11: Tuesday, Nov 22: No class
Thursday, Nov 24: No class Thanksgiving
Week 12: Tuesday, Nov 29: Ecosystem services: ecological economics
Thursday, Dec 1: No class (PDT lecture @ UMass, Amherst)
Week 13: Tuesday, Dec 6: Food production in an urban context
Thursday, Dec 8: Jill Jonnes: Urban Trees
Week 14: Tuesday, Dec 13: Last Class: Course wrap-up
Readings
Required text
Del Tredici, P. 2010. Wild Urban Plants of the Northeast: A Field Guide. Cornell University Press, Ithaca.
Week 1
Ehrenfried, G. 1991. This old land of Cambridge. Public lecture.
Foster, D.R. 2000. Conservation lessons and challenges from ecological history. Forest History Today, fall 2000.
Sauer, L. J. 1999. Soil as a living system. Arnoldia59: 35-43.
Wolfe, D. W. 2002. Nexus of the underground: a tale of mycorrhizae. Arnoldia 61(3): 2-11.
Week 2
Simpson, T.B. 2005. Ecological restoration and re-understanding ecological time. Ecological Restoration 23(1): 46-51.
Foster, D. R. et al. 1998. Forest response to natural disturbance versus human-induced stresses. Arnoldia 58(2): 35-40.
Olofsson, P. et al. 2016. Time series analysis of satellite data reveal continuous deforestation of New England since the 1980s. Environmental Research Letters 11(064002).
Week 3
Bartens et al. 2012. Soil in the city. CSA News, August 2012: 4-12.
Hobbs, R.J. et al. 2006. Novel ecosystems: theoretical and management aspects of the new ecological world order. Global Ecology and Biogeography 15: 1-7.
Hobbs, R. J. et al. 2012. Time for a change: dynamic urban ecology. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 27(3): 179-188.
Hofmeister, S. 2009. Nature running wild: a social-ecological perspective on wilderness. Nature and Culture 4(3): 293-315.
Kowarik, I. 2011. Novel urban ecosystems, biodiversity and conservation. Environmental Pollution 159: 1974-1983.
Kowarik, I. 2013. Cities and wilderness: a new perspective. International Journal of Wilderness 19(3): 32-36.
Marris, E. 2010. The new normal. Conservation Magazine 11(2): 13-17.
Pickett, S.T.A. et al. 2008. Beyond urban legends: an emerging framework of urban ecology as illustrated by the Baltimore Ecosystem study. BioScience 58 (2): 139-150.
Week 4
Fletcher, D. 2008. Flood control freakology: the Los Angeles River watershed. In: K.Vernelis (ed.) The Infrastructural City: Networked Ecologies in Los Angeles: pp. 34-51. Actar Press, Barcelona.
Groffman, P. et al. 2003. Down by the riverside: urban riparian ecology. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 1(6): 315-321.
Haglund, K. 1993. Emerald metropolis. Arnoldia 53(2): 2-17.
Rosenzweig et al. 2006. Mitigating New York City's heat island with urban forestry, living roofs, and light surfaces.
Scharenbroch, B. C. et al 2015. Tree species suitability to bioswails and impact on the urban water budget. Journal of Environmental Quality, DOI: 10.2134/jeq2015.01.0060.
Week 5
Foster, D. R. 2002. Wildlife dynamics in the changing New England landscapes. Journal of Biogeography 29: 1337-1357.
Szlavecz, K. et al. 2015. Biodiversity in the urban landscape. Chap. 6 (pp. 75-98). In R. P. Cincotta and L. J. Gorenflo (eds), The Human Population: Its Influence on Biological Diversity. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
Week 6
Del Tredici, P. 2010. Spontaneous urban vegetation: reflections of change in a globalized world. Nature and Culture 5(3): 299-315.
Del Tredici, P. 2014. The flora of the future. In: C. Reed and N.-M. Lister (eds.) Projective Ecologies, pp. 198-217. Actar Press and Harvard Graduate School of Design.
Gleason, H. A. 1926. The individualist concept of plant association. Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 53(1): 7-26.
Week 7
Davis, M. et al. 2011. Don't judge species by their origins. Nature 474 (9 June): 153-154.
Gould, S.J. 1998. An evolutionary perspective on strengths, fallacies, and confusions in the concept of native plants. Arnoldia 58(1): 3-10.
Milesi, C. 2013. Mapping and modeling the biogeochemical cycling of turf grasses in the United States. Environmental Management 36(3): 426-438.
Pfeiffer, J. M. and R. A. Voeks. 2008. Biological invasions and bio-cultural diversity: linking ecological and cultural systems. Environmental Conservation 35(4): 281-293.
Week 8
Humphries, C. 2014. It's alive. Boston Globe, Nov. 9, 2014.
Week 9
Borman, F. H. et al 1993. A New American Lawn. Chapter 5 in: Redesigning the American Lawn. Yale University Press, New Haven.
Burkholder, S. 2012. The new ecology of vacancy: rethinking lands use in shrinking cities. Sustainability 4: 1154-1172.
Del Tredici, P. 2007. The role of horticulture in a changing world. In: M. Conan and W. J. Kress (eds.) Botanical Progress, Horticultural Innovation, and Cultural Changes, pp. 259-264. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington D.C.
Hobbs, R. J. et al 2014. Managing the whole landscape: historical, hybrid and novel ecosystems. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 12(10): 557-564.
Janzen, D. 1998. Gardenification of wildland nature and the human footprint. Science 279(5355): 1312-1313.
Nassauer, J. I. 1995. Messy ecosystems, orderly frames. Landscape Journal 14: 161-170.
Nassauer, J. I. 2014. Urban vacancy and land sue legacies: a frontier for urban ecological research design and planning. Landscape and Urban Planning 125: 245-253.
Week 10
Briber, B. M. et al. 2015. Tree productivity enhanced with conversion from forest to urban land covers. PLOS/One, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0136237.
Hutyra, L. et al. 2014. Urbanization and the carbon cycle: current capabilities and research outlook from the natural sciences perspective. Earth's Future, DOI: 10.1002/2014EF000255.
Week 12
Delshammer, T. et al. 2015. Urban trees and ecosystem disservices: a pilot study using complaints records from three Swedish cities. Arboriculture and Urban Forestry 41(4): 187-193.
Jonnes, J. 2011. What is a tree worth? Wilson Quarterly, winter issue.
Pataki, D. E. et al. 2011. Coupling biogeochemical cycles in urban environments: ecosystem services, green solutions and misconceptions. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 9(1): 27-36.
Week 13
Anderson, E. 1967. Dump heaps and the origin of agriculture. Chapter IX (pp. 136-151) in: Plants, Man and Life. University of California Press, Berkeley.
Doolittle, W. E. 2004. Gardens are us, we are nature: transcending antiquity and modernity. Geographical Review 94(3): 391-404.
1