2017 Volume 21 Issue 2 Pages 89-95
In the United States, the LTER (Long Term Ecological Research) network provides the fundamental knowledge on ecosystems through 25 intensive-site-based research projects, of which Baltimore Ecosystem Study LTER (BES) and Central Arizona Phoenix LTER (CAP) focus on urban regions. In those urban LTER projects, the collaborative research, educational program, urban planning outreach, and large grand funding leverage each other towards the broad understanding of urban systems. In the studies on urban biogeochemical cycles, the adaptive management of green infrastructure projects could demonstrate new ways of identifying scientific priorities in social ecological systems, while site-scale biogeochemistry of green infrastructure projects has received little attention in urban LTERs, in part because biogeochemical properties of soilless media have rarely been articulated in basic or applied perspectives, such as soil science, biogeochemistry, green roof research, and the controlled environment agriculture. Biogeochemistry of urban green infrastructure projects could be seen as the important area of the ecological inquiry in highly modified urban environment, which could further inform the fields of urban planning and design.
