Matching Items (25)
Description
Global biodiversity is threatened by anthropogenic impacts, as the global population becomes increasingly urbanized. Conservation researchers and practitioners increasingly recognize the potential of cities to support biodiversity and foster human-nature interactions. However, further understanding of social and ecological mechanisms driving change in urban biodiversity over time is needed. In this dissertation, I first synthesized evidence for the urban homogenization hypothesis, which proposes that cities are more similar across space and time than are the natural communities they replace. I found that approaches to testing urban homogenization varied widely, but there is evidence for convergence at regional spatial scales and for some taxa. This work revealed a lack of long-term urban studies, as well as support for social and ecological mechanisms driving homogenization.
Building from this systematic literature review, I tested the effects of a long-term nutrient enrichment experiment in urban and near-urban desert preserves to evaluate indirect urban impacts on natural plant communities over time. Urban preserves and nitrogen-fertilized plots supported fewer annual wildflower species, limiting their effectiveness for biodiversity conservation and nature provisioning for urban residents.
Finally, I conducted research on residential yards in Phoenix, Arizona, to explore the effects of individual management behavior on urban plant community dynamics. Using a front yard vegetation survey repeated at three time points and a paired social survey, I asked, to what extent are yard plant communities dynamic over time, and how do attitudes and parcel characteristics affect native plant landscaping? Front yard woody plant communities experienced high turnover on a decadal scale, indicating that these managed communities are dynamic and capable of change for conservation benefit. Residents held positive attitudes toward native plants, but cultivated few in their yards. Priorities such as desired functional traits, attitudes toward native plants, and household income predicted native plant abundance, while knowledge of native plants did not.
This body of work contributes to the growing understanding of how urban ecosystems change over time in response to local- and city-scale impacts, demonstrating opportunities to engage urban residents and land managers in local conservation action to improve the value of cities for people and biodiversity.
ContributorsWheeler, Megan Michele (Author) / Hall, Sharon J (Thesis advisor) / Larson, Kelli L (Committee member) / Grimm, Nancy (Committee member) / Cavender-Bares, Jeannine (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
More people live in cities or metropolitan areas than ever before, which encompass many types of urbanization. These areas are culturally diverse and densely populated heterogeneous landscapes that are shaped by socio-ecological patterns. Cities support human and wildlife populations that are influenced indirectly and directly by human decisions. This process can result in unequal access to environmental services and accessible green spaces. Additionally, biodiversity distribution is influenced by human decisions. Although neighborhood income can drive biodiversity in metropolitan areas (i.e., the ‘luxury effect’), other socio-cultural factors may also influence the presence and abundance of wildlife beyond simple measures of wealth. To understand how additional social factors shape distributions of wildlife, I ask, are patterns of wildlife distribution associated with neighborhood ethnicity, in addition to income and ecological landscape characteristics within metropolitan areas? Utilizing data from 38 wildlife cameras deployed in neighborhood public parks and non-built spaces in metro Phoenix, AZ (USA), I estimated occupancy and activity patterns of coyotes (Canis latrans), desert cottontail rabbits (Sylvilagus audubonii), and domestic cats (Felis catus) across gradients of median household income and neighborhood ethnicity, estimated by the proportion of Latinx residents. Neighborhood ethnicity appeared in the top models for all species, and neighborhood % of Latinx residents was inversely associated with presence of native Sonoran Desert animals (coyotes and cottontail rabbits). Furthermore, daily activity patterns of coyotes differed in neighborhoods with higher vs. lower proportion of Latinx residents. My results suggest that socio-cultural variables beyond income are associated with wildlife distributions, and that factors associated with neighborhood ethnicity may be an informative correlate of city-wide ecological patterns. In this research, I unraveled predictive social variables and differentiated wildlife distribution across neighborhood gradients of income and ethnic composition, bringing attention to the potentially unequal distribution of mammals in cities.
ContributorsCocroft, Alexandreana (Author) / Hall, Sharon J (Thesis advisor) / Lerman, Susannah B (Committee member) / Lewis, Jesse (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
With a growing majority of humans living within cities and towns, urbanization is one of the most persistent drivers of change in global land use and challenges to sustainability and biodiversity conservation. The development of cities and towns can substantially shape local and regional environments in which wildlife communities persist. Although urbanization can negatively affect wildlife communities – through processes such as habitat fragmentation and non-native species introduction – cities can also provide resources to wildlife, such as through food, water, and space, creating potential opportunities for conservation. However, managing wildlife communities persisting in urbanizing landscapes requires better understanding of how urbanized landscapes influence the ability of wildlife to coexist with one another and with people at local and regional scales. In this dissertation, I addressed these research needs by evaluating the environmental and human factors driving dynamic wildlife community distributions and people’s attitudes towards wildlife. In my first two chapters,I used wildlife camera data collected from across the Phoenix Metropolitan Area, AZ to examine seasonal patterns of wildlife space use, species richness, and interspecific interactions across levels of urbanization with varying landscape characteristics, including plant productivity and spatial land use heterogeneity. Here I found that urbanization was a primary driver of wildlife community characteristics within the region, but that seasonal resource availability and landscape heterogeneity could have mediating influences that require further exploration. In my third chapter, I partnered
with wildlife researchers across North America to examine how relationships between urbanization and community composition vary among cities with distinct social-ecological characteristics, finding that effects of local urbanization were more negative in warmer, less vegetated, and more urbanized cities. In my fourth and final chapter, I explored the potential for human-wildlife coexistence by examining how various ideological, environmental, and sociodemographic factors influenced Phoenix area residents’ level of comfort living near different wildlife groups. Although I found that residents’ attitudes were primarily shaped by their relatively static wildlife values, comfort living near wildlife also depended on the characteristics of the neighboring environment, of the residents, and of the wildlife involved, indicating the potential for facilitating conditions for human-wildlife coexistence. Altogether, the findings of this dissertation suggest that the management of wildlife and their interactions with people within cities would benefit from more proactive and holistic consideration of the interacting environmental, wildlife, and human characteristics that influence the persistence of biodiversity within an increasingly urbanized world.
ContributorsHaight, Jeffrey Douglas (Author) / Hall, Sharon J (Thesis advisor) / Lewis, Jesse S (Thesis advisor) / Larson, Kelli L (Committee member) / Wu, Jianguo (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
Promoting human wellbeing is a core tenet of human development and sustainability research and practice. The COVID-19 pandemic provided a unique opportunity to examine drivers of distinct aspects of wellbeing in an urban setting. Understanding how nature interactions impact human wellbeing is pertinent during the pandemic given the abrupt changes in lifestyle and anxiety experienced by many people. Through a quantitative analysis of 2021 survey data in metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona, I explored how distinct nature recreation activities, along with nature satisfaction and social capital in their neighborhoods, affected residents’ wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic. To conceptualize wellbeing holistically, I employed a tripartite model of health encompassing subjective wellbeing, physical health, and mental health. Data from the 2021 Phoenix Area Social Survey were analyzed coupled with geospatial environmental factors that linked to survey respondents. With linear and logistic regression models, I examined how different types of nature recreation, along with local environmental and social factors, influence Phoenix residents’ life satisfaction, common health diagnoses, and depression and anxiety.
Results indicate that perceived social and environmental attributes of neighborhoods and proximity to desert preserves had a more significant impact on subjective wellbeing than nature recreation. Age and park visitation largely influenced physical health, while socio-demographic factors had the largest impact on mental health. Changes in nature recreation during the COVID-19 pandemic did not significantly impact any dimension of wellbeing among the survey sample. This research demonstrates that distinct aspects of wellbeing have different drivers, and multiple environmental and social features should be considered when designing happy and healthy communities. Additionally, the design and management of human‒environment dynamics at the local level can improve residents’ subjective wellbeing. Research should continue investigating trends and drivers of human wellbeing to support sustainability goals into the future in order to promote wellbeing in urban communities.
ContributorsMitchell, Abigail Jenn Holst (Author) / Larson, Kelli L (Thesis advisor) / Rosales Chavez, Jose-Benito (Committee member) / Pfeiffer, Deirdre (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
Extreme heat and its human impacts are significant public health challenges that disproportionately affect certain populations. Often, people with the least resources to cope with the heat also live in the hottest regions of cities. Previous heat vulnerability research has predominantly been conducted at a coarse geographic scale, yet translating relationships measured at aggregated scales to the individual level can result in ecological fallacy. Prior work has also primarily studied the most severe health outcomes: hospitalization/emergency care and mortality. It is likely that magnitudes more people are experiencing negative health impacts from heat that do not necessarily result in medical care. Such less severe impacts are under-researched in the literature.This dissertation addresses these knowledge gaps by identifying how social characteristics and physical measurements of heat at the individual and household level act independently and in concert to influence human heat-related outcomes, especially less severe outcomes. In the first paper, meta-analysis was used to quantify the summary effects of vulnerability indicators on incidence of heat-related illness. More proximal vulnerability indicators (e.g., residential air conditioning use, indoor heat exposure, etc.) tended to have the strongest impact on odds of experiencing heat-related illness than more distal indicators. In the next paper, indoor air temperature observations were related to the social characteristics of the residents. The strongest predictor of indoor air temperature was the residents’ ideal thermally comfortable temperature, despite affordability. In the final paper, fine scale biometeorological observations of the outdoor thermal environment near residents’ homes were linked to their experience with heat-related illness. The outdoor thermal environment appeared to have a stronger, more consistent impact on heat-related illness among households in a lower income neighborhood compared to a higher income one. These findings affirm the value of employing residential heat mitigation solutions at the individual and household scale, indoors and outdoors. Across all chapters, the indoor thermal environment, and the ability to modify it, had a clear impact on residents’ comfort and health. Solutions that target the most proximal causal factors of heat-related illness will likely have the greatest impact on reducing the burden of heat on human health and well-being.
ContributorsWright, Mary K (Author) / Hondula, David M (Thesis advisor) / Larson, Kelli L (Committee member) / Middel, Ariane (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023