What shape could future cities take, and how will their human populations meet environmental and resource challenges?
A paper published this week in the journal Science, authored by Arizona State University (ASU) ecologist Nancy Grimm and colleagues, concludes that global change and the ecology of cities are closely linked. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). “When we think of global change, images of melting ice caps and pasture replacing tropical rainforest come to mind,” said Grimm. “What drives these changes?” “In fact, much of the current environmental impact originates in cities. With the increasing transition to city life, the urban footprint is likely to continue to grow.” Not all changes that occur in the city stay in the city, Grimm and colleagues have found. Rural landscapes at a city’s edge show changes in soils, human settlements, the diversity of plant and animal species and nearby ecosystems. Cities are substantive ecosystems in their own right, replete with complex human-environmental interactions and increasing and far-reaching impacts, Grimm and co-autho
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