Environmental justice research seeks to understand the patterns and processes shaping the distribution of environmental burdens and amenities across society. While environmental justice research in the US has generally focused on toxics, urban design, hazard management, and segregation have reshaped patterns of risk associated with environmental processes, such as flooding, and the social patterns of exposure to those risks. In Baltimore, flood risks have been a major impetus behind the engineering of the hydrologic systems of the city.

 Dr Colin Polsky, Dr. Robert Gilmore Pontius Jr, Albert Decatur, Dan Runfola, Nick Giner, Rahul Rakshit, Matt Salem, Nick Perdue, Tom Hamill

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Looking for Lawns: How We Know What’s In Your Yard

Climate warming in western North America is expected to result in reduced snowpack, earlier melt, and increased evapotranspiration.  Consequently a shift toward a greater proportion of streamflow earlier in the water year with diminished spring and summer streamflows is anticipated.  However, few datasets exist of streamflow with associated climate and vegetation records adequate to interpret changes in climate, forest processes, and their consequences for streamflows.  This study examines trends in long-term streamflow records from three headwater catchments in old growth f

The McMurdo Dry Valleys have no rainfall and most snowfall sublimates before wetting the soils significantly. Glacial melt streams are also seasonal, flowing for only 4 to 6 weeks per year. Consequently, hydrology does not provide significant connections among ecosystem components. Conversely, wind is a persistent daily feature of the McMurdo Dry Valleys environment throughout the year. In summer, cool air from the ice-covered oceans flows into the relatively warm valleys creating a strong thermal gradient in the valleys.

Land development practices result in compacted soils that filter less water, increase surface runoff and decrease groundwater infiltration. However, until now, there has been relatively little study of how hydrologic properties of lawns differ according to residential character such as year built or percent canopy cover. This study examines how soil infiltration rates and water retention properties of residential lawns differ according to social and physical factors that are readily attainable from national data sources.

This session is intended both for social and biophysical scientists who want to help develop a proposal for the kind of “multi-site, highly collaborative and integrated research initiative” envisioned by the LTER planning group. The focus will be on what the LTER planning process calls the “centerpiece” of the group's conceptual framework, as well as one of “Grand Challenges” to be addressed at the network level – “the dynamics of coupled human-natural ecosystems.”

Human management of landscapes is a primary cause of global environmental change. In residential landscapes, homeowner yard management can affect ecological properties and processes locally and regionally. For example, turfgrass lawns are now one of the largest irrigated crops in the U.S., contributing to high water and fertilizer use. Social drivers, such as personal values or Homeowner Association (HOA) regulations, also impact individual yard management decisions.

The conversion of agricultural and rural lands for development purposes reflects one of the greatest threats to key ecosystem services in the United States. This poster addresses land use change dynamics in southern Florida, linking them to local governance-zoning institutions. Study of land use and zoning patterns informs broader questions of relevance to the LTER, including: “What is the pattern of land and water use change in urban and working systems: what are the temporal and spatial patterns of human activity and ecosystem dynamics in LTER regions?

Despite the increased recognition of the importance of urban sprawl and landscape fragmentation on social-ecological systems, comparative research on cities across the United States is limited. Therefore, we developed a cross-site comparative study on the land spatial pattern across five LTER sites in the US Southwest. This poster examines the land pattern characteristics for an individual site - Central Arizona Phoenix (CAP).

Land uses and management practices in residential parcels (e.g., aesthetic/recreational/economic uses, land-cover choices, irrigation and chemical applications) impact and are impacted by social (e.g., stratification and status, environmental perceptions, zoning) and ecological (e.g., carbon sequestration, nutrient cycling, water demand and quality) processes.