Unintended consequences of urbanization for aquatic ecosystems: A case study from the Arizona desert
Abstract
Many changes wrought during the construction of "designer ecosystems" are intended
to ensure - and often succeed in ensuring - that a city can provide ecosystem goods
and services; but other changes have unintended impacts on the ecology of the city,
impairing its ability to provide these critical functions. Indian Bend Wash, an urbanizing
watershed in the Central Arizona-Phoenix (CAP) ecosystem, provides an excellent case
study of how human alteration of land cover, stream channel structure, and hydrology
affect ecosystem processes, both intentionally and unintentionally. The construction
of canals created new flowpaths that cut across historic stream channels, and the
creation of artificial lakes produced sinks for fine sediments and hotspots for nitrogen
processing. Further hydrologic manipulations, such as groundwater pumping, linked
surface flows to the aquifer and replaced ephemeral washes with perennial waters.
These alterations of hydrologic structure are typical by-products of urban growth
in arid and semiarid regions and create distinct spatial and temporal patterns of
nitrogen availability. © 2008 American Institute of Biological Sciences.
Type
Journal articlePermalink
http://hdl.handle.net/10161/8365Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1641/B580808Publication Info
Roach, WJ; Heffernan, JB; Grimm, NB; Arrowsmith, JR; Eisinger, C; & Rychener, T (2008). Unintended consequences of urbanization for aquatic ecosystems: A case study from the Arizona desert. BioScience, 58(8). pp. 715-727. 10.1641/B580808. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10161/8365.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
Collections
More Info
Show full item record
Articles written by Duke faculty are made available through the campus open access policy. For more information see: Duke Open Access Policy
Rights for Collection: Scholarly Articles