Unintended consequences of urbanization for aquatic ecosystems: A case study from the Arizona desert
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2008-09-01
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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.
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Roach, WJ, JB Heffernan, NB Grimm, JR Arrowsmith, C Eisinger and T Rychener (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 https://hdl.handle.net/10161/8365.
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James Brendan Heffernan
I am interested in major changes in ecosystem structure, particularly in streams, rivers and wetlands. My work focuses on feedbacks among ecological, physical, and biogeochemical processes, and uses a wide range of tools and approaches. I am particularly interested in projects that address both basic ecological theory and pressing environmental problems. Increasingly, we are applying tools and theories developed for local ecosystems to better understand ecological patterns and mechanisms at regional and continental scales.
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