Abstract
Our central paradigm for urban ecology is that cities are emergent phenomena of local-scale, dynamic interactions among socioeconomic and biophysical forces. These complex interactions give rise to a distinctive ecology and to distinctive ecological forcing functions. Separately, both the natural and the social sciences have adopted complex system theory to study emergent phenomena, but attempts to integrate the natural and social sciences to understand human-dominated systems remain reductionist—these disciplines generally study humans and ecological processes as separate phenomena. Here we argue that if the natural and social sciences remain within their separate domains, they cannot explain how human-dominated ecosystems emerge from interactions between humans and ecological processes. We propose an integrated framework to test formal hypotheses about how human-dominated ecosystems evolve from those interactions.
Access provided by Autonomous University of Puebla. Download to read the full chapter text
Chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alberti M. 1999. Modeling the urban ecosystem: A conceptual framework. Environment and Planning, B 26: 605–630.
Alberti M, Susskind L, eds. 1997. Managing urban sustainability. Environmental Impact Assessment Review (special issue) 16 (4–6): 213–221.
Alberti M, Waddell P. 2000. An integrated urban development and ecological model. Integrated Assessment 1: 215–227.
Arnold CL, Gibbons C. 1996. Impervious surface coverage: The emergence of a key environmental indicator. Journal of the American Planning Association 62 (2): 243–258.
Audirac I, Shermyen AH, Smith MT. 1990. Ideal Urban Form and Visions of the Good Life: Florida’s Growth Management Dilemma. Journal of the American Planning Association 56: 470–482.
Blair RB. 1996. Land use and avian species diversity along an urban gradient. Ecological Applications 6: 506–519.
Burchell RW, Lowenstein G, Dolphin WR, Galley CC, Downs A, Seskin S, Gray Still K, Moore T. 2002. Costs of Sprawl 2000. Washington (DC): National Academy Press.
Collins JP, Kinzig A, Grimm NB, Fagan WF, Hope D, Wu J, Borer ET. 2000. A new urban ecology. American Scientist 88: 416–425.
Costanza R, et al. 1997. The value of the world’s ecosystem services and natural capital. Nature 387: 253–260.
Daily GC, ed. 1997. Nature’s Services: Societal Dependence on Natural Ecosystems. Washington (DC): Island Press.
Elton C. 1927. Animal Ecology. New York: Macmillan.
Ewing R. 1994. Characteristics, causes, and effects of sprawl: A literature review. Environmental and Urban Issues 21: 1–15.
Ewing R. 1997. Is Los Angeles–style sprawl desirable? Journal of the American Planning Association 63 (1): 107–126.
Flannery T. 2001. The Eternal Frontier. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press.
Folke C, Larsson J, Sweitzer J. 1996. Renewable resource appropriation by cities. Pages 201–221 in Costanza R, Segura O, Martinez-Alier J, eds. Getting Down to Earth: Practical Applications of Ecological Economics. Washington (DC): Island Press.
Graedel TE, Crutzen PJ. 1989. The changing atmosphere. Scientific American 261 (3): 28–36.
Grimm NB, Grove JM, Pickett STA, Redman CL. 2000. Integrated approaches to long-term studies of urban ecological systems. BioScience 50: 571–584.
Harrison P, Pearce F. 2001. AAAS Atlas of Population and Environment. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Hixon MA, Pacala PW, Sandin SA. 2002. Population regulation: Historical context and contemporary challenges of open vs. closed systems. Ecology 83: 1490–1508.
Holling CS. 2001. Understanding the complexity of economic, ecological, and social systems. Ecosystems 4: 390–405.
Hutchinson GE. 1957. Concluding remarks. Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology 22: 415–427.
Hutchinson GE. 1965. The Ecological Theater and Evolutionary Play. New Haven (CT): Yale University Press.
Innes JE, Booher DE. 1999. Metropolitan development as a complex system: A new approach to sustainability. Economic Development Quarterly 13: 141–156.
Jacobs J. 1961. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Random House.
Krugman P. 1995. Development, Geography, and Economic Theory. London: M1T Press.
Leopold LB. 1968. Hydrology for Urban Planning—A Guidebook on the Hydrologic Effects of Urban Land Use. Washington (DC): US Geological Survey.
Levin SA. 1998. Ecosystems and the biosphere as complex adaptive systems. Ecosystems 1: 431–436.
Likens GE. 1998. Limitations to intellectual progress in ecosystem science. Pages 247–271 in Pace ML, Groffman PM, eds. Successes, Limitations, and Frontiers in Ecosystem Science. New York: Springer-Verlag.
Machlis GE, Force JE, Burch WR Jr. 1997. The human ecosystem, part I: The human ecosystem as an organizing concept in ecosystem management. Society and Natural Resources 10: 347–368.
Marzluff JM. 2001. Worldwide urbanization and its effects on birds. Pages 19–47 in Marzluff JM, Bowman R, Donnelly R, eds. Avian Ecology in an Urbanizing World. Norwell (MA): Kluwer.
McDonnell MJ, Picket STA, eds. 1993. Humans as Components of Ecosystems: The Ecology of Subtle Human Effects and Populated Areas. New York: Springer-Verlag.
McKinney ML. 2002. Urbanization, biodiversity, and conservation. Bio-Science 52: 883–890.
Nicolis G, Prigogine I. 1989. Understanding Complexity. New York: Freeman.
Oke TR. 1987. Boundary Layer Climates. London: Methuen.
Ottensmann JR. 1977. Urban sprawl, land values and the density of development. Land Economics 53: 389–400.
Pacyna JM, Pacyna EG. 2001. An assessment of global and regional emissions of trace metals to the atmosphere from anthropogenic sources worldwide. Environmental Review 9: 269–298.
Palumbi SR. 2001. Humans as the world’s greatest evolutionary force. Science 293: 1786–1790.
Pickett STA, Parker VT, Fiedler PL. 1992. The new paradigm in ecology: Implications for conservation biology above the species level. Pages 65–88 in Fiedler PL, Jain SK, eds. Conservation Biology: The Theory and Practice of Nature Conservation, Preservation, and Management. New York: Chapman and Hall.
Pickett STA, Burke IC, Dale VH, Gosz JR, Lee RG, Pacala SW, Shachak M. 1994. Integrated models in forested regions. Pages 120–141 in Groffman PM, Likens GE, eds. Integrated Regional Models. New York: Chapman and Hall.
Pickett STA, Cadenasso ML, Grove JM, Nilon CH, Pouyat RV, Zipperer WC, Costanza R. 2001. Urban ecological systems: Linking terrestrial ecological, physical, and socioeconomic components of metropolitan areas. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 32: 127–157.
Pimm SL, Moulton MP, Justice LJ. 1994. Bird extinctions in the central Pacific. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, B 344: 27–33.
Postel SL, Daily GC, Ehrlich PR. 1996. Human appropriation of renewable fresh water. Science 271: 785–788.
Prentice IC, et al. 2001. The carbon cycle and atmospheric carbon dioxide. Pages 185–237 in Houghton J, Yihui D, eds. Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Rees W. 1992. Ecological footprints and appropriated carrying capacity: What urban economics leaves out. Environment and Urbanization 4: 121–130.
Rees W, Wackernagel M. 1994. Ecological footprints and appropriated carrying capacity: Measuring the natural capital requirements of the human economy. Pages 362–390 in Jansson AM, Hammer M, Folke C, Costanza R, eds. Investing in Natural Capital. Washington (DC): Island Press.
Resnick MR. 1994. Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams. Cambridge (MA): MIT Press.
Reznick D, Bryant MJ, Bashey F. 2002. R- and K-selection revisited: The role of population regulation in life-history evolution. Ecology 83: 1509–1520.
Robles C, Desharnais D. 2002. History and current development of a paradigm of predation in rocky intertidal communities. Ecology 83: 1521–1536.
Rusk D. 1999. Inside Game, Outside Game: Winning Strategies for Saving Urban America. Washington (DC): Brookings.
Sadik N. 1999. The State of World Population 1999—6 Billion: A Time for Choices. New York: United Nations Population Fund. (13 October 2003; www.unfpa.org/swp/1999/pdf/swp99.pdf)
Sukopp H, Werner P. 1982. Nature in Cities: A Report and Review of Studies and Experiments Concerning Ecology, Wildlife and Nature Conservation in Urban and Suburban Areas. Strasbourg (France): Council of Europe. Nature and Environment Series 28.
Sukopp H, Numata M, Huber A, eds. 1995. Urban Ecology as the Basis for Urban Planning. The Hague: SPB Academic.
Turner BL II, Clark WC, Kates RW, Richards JF, Mathews JT, Meyer WB, eds. 1991. The Earth as Transformed by Human Action: Global and Regional Changes in the Biosphere over the Past 300 Years. Cambridge (United Kingdom): Cambridge University Press.
Vitousek PM, Ehrlich PR, Ehrlich AH, Matson PA. 1986. Human appropriation of the products of photosynthesis. BioScience 36: 368–373.
Vitousek PM, Mooney HA, Lubchenko J, Melillo JM. 1997a. Human domination of Earth’s ecosystems. Science 277: 494–499.
Vitousek PM, D’Antonio CM, Loope LL, Rejmánek M, Westbrooks R. 1997b. Introduced species: A significant component of human-based global change. New Zealand Journal of Ecology 21: 1–16.
Weiher E, Keddy PA, eds. 1999. Ecological Assembly Rules: Perspectives, Advances, Retreats. Cambridge (United Kingdom): Cambrige University Press.
Wilson EO. 1998. Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge. New York: Vintage.
Wu J, David JL. 2002. A spatially explicit hierarchical approach to modeling complex ecological systems: Theory and applications. Ecological Modelling 153: 7–26.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Alberti, M., Marzluff, J.M., Shulenberger, E., Bradley, G., Ryan, C., Zumbrunnen, C. (2008). Integrating Humans into Ecology: Opportunities and Challenges for Studying Urban Ecosystems. In: Marzluff, J.M., et al. Urban Ecology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-73412-5_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-73412-5_9
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-73411-8
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-73412-5
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)