A3-1: Vegetation Biodiversity – Ecosystem Functioning Relationships and Green Infrastructure Across the UWIN Network

Project A3-1

Project Team:  Darrel Jenerette, PI – Univeristy of California-Riverside

                          Christopher Swan – University of Maryland Baltimore County

                          Shirley Papuga – University of Arizona

                          Mike Crimmins – University of Arizona

                          Thomsa Meixner – University of Arizona

Project Overview

Our project will lead to the quantification of urban biodiversity and ecosystem functioning and assessments of potential trajectories for these components in contribution to the UWIN blueprint for each study region.  In doing this we will contribute to a growing macrosystem perspective of urban ecosystems and test novel theories of continental scale variation in urban biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships.  We will conduct this work through a combination of field surveys, analysis of high resolution (1m) remotely sensed imagery, and focused study of  existing green infrastructure (GI) across UWIN regions.  Surveys of field biodiversity and cover will be conducted at scales of 30 m to 1 ha.  These will feature teams of local citizen scientists, local graduate student, and funded members of our project.  In addition to direct blueprint outcomes and new scientific discoveries within this project domain, we will also contribute to training and outreach goals of UWIN.