Ecologists turn an eye to cities

The ASC list sure gives us access to some pretty interesting articles. When I was in Paris a couple of years back, there was a conference on 'biodiversity of cities' to try to point out to people that ecology wasn't just a matter of looking at tiny parcels of "untouched" land. So I welcome this article in Science :)

Ecologists must join humanity's rush to the cities

Cities are responsible for so many of the sustainability challengesfaced by our urbanising world, but urban ecologists can help unlock the benefits of city living, say researchers in today's issue of Science.

Urban environments act as microcosms of the challenges faced globally,which makes them real world laboratories for understanding andresponding to change, concludes a team of ecologists from CSIRO, ArizonaState University and the New Zealand Centre for Ecological Economics.

"As ecologists, the natural environment has traditionally been our mainconcern, but cities affect and are affected by changes in climate, landuse, water and biodiversity," says CSIRO's Xuemei Bai, co-author of thepaper.

"Cities are more than just planned spaces. Planners, engineers andarchitects should be working with urban ecologists to design, developand redevelop projects suited to these complex, adapting and evolvingenvironments.

"Because cities are largely designed ecosystems, we have an opportunityto use ecological principles in creating urban living and workingspaces, housing developments, open spaces, and aquatic environments thatcan sustain biodiversity and ecosystem function, while also providingimportant ecosystem services on which the city's population depends."

More than 60 per cent of Australia's population now lives in our fivelargest cities. Although urban population growth over the past centuryoccurred on less than three per cent of the Earth's surface, the impacthas been global, with 78 per cent of carbon emissions, 60 per cent ofresidential water use, and 76 per cent of wood used for industrialpurposes attributed to cities.

Original, effective responses to our urban environments - humanity'sprimary home - are urgently needed, and urban ecologists are uniquelyplaced to take us forward.

Publication: N.B. Grimm, S.H. Faeth, N.E.Golubiewski, C.L. Redman, J.Wu, X. Bai and J.M. Briggs. "Global Change and the Ecology of Cities."Science, February 8, 2008.
Background: www.csiro.au/people/Xuemei.Bai.html
Image available at: www.scienceimage.csiro.au/mediarelease/mr08-20.html
Further Information: Xuemei Bai, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems interviews available in English, Chinese and Japanese 02 6242 1710xuemei.bai@csiro.au
Media Assistance: Matthew Levinson, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems02 94905437; 0406 314 450 matthew.levinson@csiro.au www.csiro.au

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