Field and remotely sensed measures of soil and vegetation carbon and nitrogen across an urbanization gradient in the Boston metropolitan area

Urban Ecosystems

Volumn 16, Issue 3, 2013, Pages 593-616

  Rao, Preeti ^a   Hutyra, Lucy R ^a   Raciti, Steve M ^a   Finzi, Adrien C ^b  

^a BOSTON UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b Boston University   (United States)

Author keywords

Carbon; Gradient; NDVI; Nitrogen; Remote sensing; Soil; Urbanization; Vegetation

Indexed keywords

EID: 84881369355     PISSN: 10838155     EISSN: 15731642     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/s11252-013-0291-6     Document Type: Article

References (102)

1. Aber JD, Goodale CL, Ollinger SV, Smith ML, Magill AH, Martin ME, Hallett RA, Stoddard JL (2003) Is nitrogen deposition altering the nitrogen status of northeastern forests? Bioscience 53(4): 375-389.
2. Alfani A, Baldantoni D, Maisto G, Bartoli G, Virzo De Santo A (2000) Temporal and spatial variation in C, N, S and trace element contents in the leaves of Quercus ilex within the urban area of Naples. Environ Pollut 109(1): 119-129.
3. Asner GP, Jones MO, Martin RE, Knapp DE, Hughes RF (2008) Remote sensing of native and invasive species in Hawaiian forests. Remote Sens Environ 112(5): 1912-1926.
4. Berland A (2012) Long-term urbanization effects on tree canopy cover along an urban-rural gradient. Urban Ecosystems 1-18.
5. Bettez N (2009) Impacts of chronic low level nitrogen deposition along a roadside deposition gradient on forest and estuarine N loading. Ph. D. Dissertation, Cornell University, 93 pp.
6. Blair RB (1996) Land use and avian species diversity along an urban gradient. Ecol Appl 6(2): 506-519.
7. Boggs JL, McNulty SG, Gavazzi MJ, Myers JM (2005) Tree growth, foliar chemistry, and nitrogen cycling across a nitrogen deposition gradient in southern Appalachian deciduous forests. Can J For Res-Rev Can Rech For 35(8): 1901-1913.
8. Cadenasso ML, Pickett STA, Schwarz K (2007) Spatial heterogeneity in urban ecosystems: Reconceptualizing land cover and a framework for classification. Front Ecol Environ 5(2): 80-88.
9. Curran PJ (2001) Imaging spectrometry for ecological applications. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation 3(4): 305-312.
10. Efron B, Tibshirani R (1993) An introduction to the bootstrap. Monographs on Statistics and Applied Probability 57.
11. Energy Information Administration (2008) Emissions of greenhouse gases in the United States. US Department of Energy, Washington, DC.
12. Elvidge CD, Tuttle BT, Sutton PS, Baugh KE, Howard AT, Milesi C, Bhaduri BL, Nemani R (2007) Global distribution and density of constructed impervious surfaces. Sensors 7(9): 1962-1979.
13. Fang YT, Yoh M, Koba K, Zhu WX, Takebayashi Y, Xiao YH, Lei CY, Mo JM, Zhang W, Lu XK (2011) Nitrogen deposition and forest nitrogen cycling along an urban-rural transect in southern China. Glob Chang Biol 17(2): 872-885.
14. Finzi AC, van Breemen N, Canham CD (1998) Canopy tree soil interactions within temperate forests: Species effects on soil carbon and nitrogen. Ecol Appl 8(2): 440-446.
15. Finzi A (2009) Decades of atmospheric deposition have not resulted in widespread phosphorus limitation or saturation of tree demand for nitrogen in southern New England. Biogeochemistry 92(3): 217-229.
16. Forest Inventory and Analysis (2005) http://fia. fs. fed. us/. Accessed 12 October 2011.
17. Foster DR (1992) Land-use history (1730-1990) and vegetation dynamics in central New England, USA. Journal of Ecology 753-771.
18. Foster DR, Aber JD, Cogbill CV (2010) Wildlands and woodlands: A vision for the New England landscape. Harvard University, Harvard Forest.
19. Gao F, Masek J, Schwaller M, Hall F (2006) On the blending of the Landsat and MODIS surface reflectance: Predicting daily Landsat surface reflectance. Geoscience and Remote Sensing, IEEE Transactions on 44(8): 2207-2218.
20. George K, Ziska LH, Bunce JA, Quebedeaux B (2007) Elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration and temperature across an urban-rural transect. Atmospheric Environment 41(35): 7654-7665.
21. Golubiewski NE (2006) Urbanization increases grassland carbon pools: Effects of landscaping in Colorado's front range. Ecol Appl 16(2): 555-571.
22. Gregg JW, Jones CG, Dawson TE (2003) Urbanization effects on tree growth in the vicinity of New York City. Nature 424(6945): 183-187.
23. Grimm NB, Foster D, Groffman P, Grove JM, Hopkinson CS, Nadelhoffer KJ, Pataki DE, Peters DPC (2008) The changing landscape: Ecosystem responses to urbanization and pollution across climatic and societal gradients. Front Ecol Environ 6(5): 264-272.
24. Hahs AK, McDonnell MJ (2006) Selecting independent measures to quantify Melbourne's urban-rural gradient. Landscape and Urban Planning 78(4): 435-448.
25. Hall B, Motzkin G, Foster DR, Syfert M, Burk J (2002) Three hundred years of forest and land-use change in Massachusetts, USA. J Biogeogr 29(10-11): 1319-1335.
26. Harris W, Goldstein R, Henderson G (1973) Analysis of forest biomass pools, annual primary production and turnover of biomass for a mixed deciduous forest watershed. In: Young H (ed) IUFRO biomass studies, Nancy, France and Vancouver, BC. University of Maine, College of Life Sciences and Agriculture, Orono, ME, pp 41-64.
27. Hollinger DY, Ollinger SV, Richardson AD, Meyers TP, Dail DB, Martin ME, Scott NA, Arkebauer TJ, Baldocchi DD, Clark KL, Curtis PS, Davis KJ, Desai AR, Dragoni D, Goulden ML, Gu L, Katul GG, Pallardy SG, Paw UKT, Schmid HP, Stoy PC, Suyker AE, Verma SB (2009) Albedo estimates for land surface models and support for a new paradigm based on foliage nitrogen concentration. Glob Chang Biol 16(2): 696-710.
28. Hutyra LR, Yoon B, Hepinstall-Cymerman J, Alberti M (2011a) Carbon consequences of land cover change and expansion of urban lands: A case study in the Seattle metropolitan region. Landscape and Urban Planning 103(1): 83-93.
29. Hutyra LR, Yoon B, Alberti M (2011b) Terrestrial carbon stocks across a gradient of urbanization: a study of the Seattle, WA region. Glob Chang Biol 17(2): 783-797.
30. Idso CD, Idso SB, Balling RC (2001) An intensive two-week study of an urban CO2 dome in Phoenix, Arizona, USA. Atmospheric Environment 35: 995-1000.
31. Imhoff ML, Bounoua L, DeFries R, Lawrence WT, Stutzer D, Tucker CJ, Ricketts T (2004) The consequences of urban land transformation on net primary productivity in the United States. Remote Sens Environ 89(4): 434-443.
32. Jenkins JC, United States. Forest Service. Northeastern Research S (2004) Comprehensive database of diameter-based biomass regressions for North American tree species. United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northeastern Research Station.
33. Jim CY (1998) Physical and chemical properties of a Hong Kong roadside soil in relation to urban tree growth. Urban Ecosystems 2(2): 171-181.
34. Kaushal S, Belt K (2012) The urban watershed continuum: Evolving spatial and temporal dimensions. Urban Ecosystems 15(2): 409-435.
35. Kaye JP, McCulley RL, Burke IC (2005) Carbon fluxes, nitrogen cycling, and soil microbial communities in adjacent urban, native and agricultural ecosystems. Glob Chang Biol 11(4): 575-587.
36. Kaye JP, Groffman PM, Grimm NB, Baker LA, Pouyat RV (2006) A distinct urban biogeochemistry? Trends Ecol Evol 21(4): 192-199.
37. Kennedy C, Pincetl S, Bunje P (2011) The study of urban metabolism and its applications to urban planning and design. Environ Pollut 159: 1965-1973.
38. Kokaly RF, Clark RN (1999) Spectroscopic determination of leaf biochemistry using band-depth analysis of absorption features and stepwise multiple linear regression. Remote Sens Environ 67(3): 267-287.
39. Langford M (2007) Rapid facilitation of dasymetric-based population interpolation by means of raster pixel maps. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems 31(1): 19-32.
40. Law N, Band L, Grove M (2004) Nitrogen input from residential lawn care practices in suburban watersheds in Baltimore County, MD. J Environ Plan Manag 47(5): 737-755.
41. Lorenz K, Lal R (2009) Biogeochemical C and N cycles in urban soils. Environ Int 35(1): 1-8.
42. Lovett GM, Traynor MM, Pouyat RV, Carreiro MM, Zhu W-X, Baxter JW (2000) Atmospheric deposition to Oak forests along an urban-rural gradient. Environ Sci Technol 34(20): 4294-4300.
43. Lovett GM, Weathers KC, Arthur MA (2002) Control of nitrogen loss from forested watersheds by soil carbon: Nitrogen ratio and tree species composition. Ecosystems 5(7): 712-718.
44. Luck M, Wu J (2002) A gradient analysis of urban landscape pattern: A case study from the phoenix metropolitan region, Arizona, USA. Landsc Ecol 17(4): 327-339.
45. Martin ME, Newman SD, Aber JD, Congalton RG (1998) Determining forest species composition using high spectral resolution remote sensing data. Remote Sens Environ 65(3): 249-254.
46. Martin ME, Plourde LC, Ollinger SV, Smith ML, McNeil BE (2008) A generalizable method for remote sensing of canopy nitrogen across a wide range of forest ecosystems. Remote Sens Environ 112(9): 3511-3519.
47. Masek JG, Vermote EF, Saleous NE, Wolfe R, Hall FG, Huemmrich KF, Gao F, Kutler J, Lim TK (2006) A Landsat surface reflectance dataset for North America, 1990-2000. Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, IEEE 3(1): 68-72.
48. Massachusetts Office of Geographic Information, MassGIS (2009) Land Use (2005) data layer. http://www. mass. gov/mgis/lus2005. htm Accessed 2 May 2011.
49. Matson P, Johnson L, Billow C, Miller J, Pu R (1994) Seasonal patterns and remote spectral estimation of canopy chemistry across the Oregon transect. Ecological Applications 280-298.
50. McDonnell MJ, Pickett STA (1990) Ecosystem structure and function along urban-rural gradients: An unexploited opportunity for ecology. Ecology 71(4): 1232-1237.
51. McDonnell MJ, Pickett STA, Groffman P, Bohlen P, Pouyat RV, Zipperer WC, Parmelee RW, Carreiro MM, Medley K (1997) Ecosystem processes along an urban-to-rural gradient. Urban Ecosystems 1(1): 21-36.
52. McDonnell M, Hahs A (2008) The use of gradient analysis studies in advancing our understanding of the ecology of urbanizing landscapes: Current status and future directions. Landsc Ecol 23(10): 1143-1155.
53. McIntyre NE, Knowles-Yanez K, Hope D (2000) Urban ecology as an interdisciplinary field: Differences in the use of "urban" between the social and natural sciences. Urban Ecosystems 4(1): 5-24.
54. McNulty SG, Aber JD, Boone RD (1991) Spatial changes in forest floor and foliar chemistry of spruce-Fir forests across New-England. Biogeochemistry 14(1): 13-29.
55. Milesi C, Elvidge CD, Nemani RR, Running SW (2003) Assessing the impact of urban land development on net primary productivity in the southeastern United States. Remote Sens Environ 86(3): 401-410.
56. Milesi C, Running SW, Elvidge CD, Dietz JB, Tuttle BT, Nemani RR (2005) Mapping and modeling the biogeochemical cycling of turf grasses in the United States. Environ Manag 36(3): 426-438.
57. National Climatic Data Center (2011) US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (2009) Online Climate Data Directory. http://lwf. ncdc. noaa. gov/oa/climate/climatedata. html.
58. Nihlgard B (1985) The ammonium hypothesis: an additional explanation to the forest dieback in Europe. Ambio 2-8.
59. Nikula S, Vapaavuori E, Manninen S (2010) Urbanization-related changes in European aspen (Populus tremula L.): Leaf traits and litter decomposition. Environ Pollut 158(6): 2132-2142.
60. Nixon SW, Fulweiler RW (2011) Ecological footprints and shadows in an urban estuary, Narragansett Bay, RI (USA). Regional Environmental Change 1-14.
61. Nowak DJ, Crane DE (2002) Carbon storage and sequestration by urban trees in the USA. Environ Pollut 116(3): 381-389.
62. Ollinger SV, Smith ML (2005) Net primary production and canopy nitrogen in a temperate forest landscape: An analysis using imaging spectroscopy, modeling and field data. Ecosystems 8(7): 760-778.
63. Ollinger SV, Richardson AD, Martin ME, Hollinger DY, Frolking SE, Reich PB, Plourde LC, Katul GG, Munger JW, Oren R, Smith ML, Paw UKT, Bolstad PV, Cook BD, Day MC, Martin TA, Monson RK, Schmid HP (2008) Canopy nitrogen, carbon assimilation, and albedo in temperate and boreal forests: Functional relations and potential climate feedbacks. Proc Natl Acad Sci 105(49): 19336-19341. doi: 10. 1073/pnas. 0810021105.
64. O'Neil-Dunne JPM, MacFaden SW, Royar AR, Pelletier KC (2012) An object-based system for LiDAR data fusion and feature extraction. Geocarto International 1-16.
65. Pataki DE, Alig RJ, Fung AS, Golubiewski NE, Kennedy CA, McPherson EG, Nowak DJ, Pouyat RV, Lankao PR (2006) Urban ecosystems and the North American carbon cycle. Glob Chang Biol 12(11): 2092-2102.
66. Pataki DE, Emmi PC, Forster CB, Mills JI, Pardyjak ER, Peterson TR, Thompson JD, Dudley-Murphy E (2009) An integrated approach to improving fossil fuel emissions scenarios with urban ecosystem studies. Ecol Complex 6(1): 1-14.
67. Piao SL, Ciais P, Friedlingstein P, Peylin P, Reichstein M, Luyssaert S, Margolis H, Fang JY, Barr A, Chen AP, Grelle A, Hollinger DY, Laurila T, Lindroth A, Richardson AD, Vesala T (2008) Net carbon dioxide losses of northern ecosystems in response to autumn warming. Nature 451(7174): 49-U43.
68. Pickett STA, Cadenasso ML, Grove JM, Groffman PM, Band LE, Boone CG, Burch WR, Grimmond CSB, Hom J, Jenkins JC, Law NL, Nilon CH, Pouyat RV, Szlavecz K, Warren PS, Wilson MA (2008) Beyond urban legends: An emerging framework of urban ecology, as illustrated by the Baltimore ecosystem study. Bioscience 58(2): 139-150.
69. Pickett STA, Cadenasso ML, Grove JM, Boone CG, Groffman PM, Irwin E, Kaushal SS, Marshall V, McGrath BP, Nilon CH (2011) Urban ecological systems: Scientific foundations and a decade of progress. J Environ Manage 92(3): 331-362.
70. Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat (2012) World Urbanization Prospects: The 2011 Revision. New York: United Nations.
71. Post WM, Emanuel WR, Zinke PJ, Stangenberger AG (1982) Soil carbon pools and world life zones. Nature 298(5870): 156-159.
72. Potter C, Klooster S, Huete A, Genovese V (2007) Terrestrial carbon sinks for the United States predicted from MODIS satellite data and ecosystem modeling. Earth Interactions 11(13): 1-21.
73. Pouyat RV, Carreiro MM, McDonnell MJ, Pickett STA, Groffman PM, Parmelee RW, Medley KE, Zipperer WC (1995) Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics in Oak Stands Along an Urban-Rural Gradient. Carbon Forms and Functions in Forest Soils 569-587.
74. Pouyat R, Groffman P, Yesilonis I, Hernandez L (2002) Soil carbon pools and fluxes in urban ecosystems. Environ Pollut 116: S107-S118.
75. Pouyat RV, Yesilonis ID, Nowak DJ (2006) Carbon storage by urban soils in the United States. J Environ Qual 35(4): 1566-1575. doi: 10. 2134/jeq2005. 0215.
76. Pouyat RV, Yesilonis ID, Golubiewski NE (2009) A comparison of soil organic carbon stocks between residential turf grass and native soil. Urban Ecosystems 12(1): 45-62.
77. Raciti SM, Groffman PM, Jenkins JC, Pouyat RV, Fahey TJ, Pickett STA, Cadenasso ML (2011a) Accumulation of carbon and nitrogen in residential soils with different land-use histories. Ecosystems 14(2): 287-297.
78. Raciti SM, Burgin AJ, Man PMG, Lewis DN, Fahey TJ (2011b) Denitrification in suburban lawn soils. J Environ Qual 40(6): 1932-1940.
79. Raciti SM, Hutyra LR, Rao P, Finzi AC (2012a) Inconsistent definitions of "urban" result in different conclusions about the size of urban carbon and nitrogen stocks. Ecol Appl 22(3): 1015-1035.
80. Raciti SM, Hutyra LR, Finzi AC (2012b) Depleted soil carbon and nitrogen pools beneath impervious surfaces. Environ Pollut 164: 248-251.
81. Rees WE (1992) Ecological footprints and appropriated carrying capacity: What urban economics leaves out. Environ Urban 4(2): 121-130.
82. Reich PB, Turner DP, Bolstad P (1999) An approach to spatially distributed modeling of net primary production (NPP) at the landscape scale and its application in validation of EOS NPP products. Remote Sens Environ 70(1): 69-81.
83. Rogan J, Bumbarger N, Kulakowski D, Christman ZJ, Runfola DM, Blanchard SD (2010) Improving forest type discrimination with mixed lifeform classes using fuzzy classification thresholds informed by field observations. Can J Remote Sens 36(6): 699-708.
84. Running SW, Nemani RR, Heinsch FA, Zhao M, Reeves M, Hashimoto H (2004) A continuous satellite-derived measure of global terrestrial primary production. BioScience 54(6): 547-560.
85. Scalenghe R, Marsan FA (2009) The anthropogenic sealing of soils in urban areas. Landscape and Urban Planning 90(1-2): 1-10.
86. Schimel DS, Emanuel W, Rizzo B, Smith T, Woodward FI, Fisher H, Kittel TGF, McKeown R, Painter T, Rosenbloom N, Ojima DS, Parton WJ, Kicklighter DW, McGuire AD, Melillo JM, Pan Y, Haxeltine A, Prentice C, Sitch S, Hibbard K, Nemani R, Pierce L, Running S, Borchers J, Chaney J, Neilson R, Braswell BH (1997) Continental scale variability in ecosystem processes: Models, data, and the role of disturbance. Ecol Monogr 67(2): 251-271.
87. Seto KC, Fragkias M, Guneralp B, Reilly MK (2011) A meta-analysis of global urban land expansion. PLoS One 6(8): e23777.
88. Smith ML, Ollinger SV, Martin ME, Aber JD, Hallett RA, Goodale CL (2002) Direct estimation of aboveground forest productivity through hyperspectral remote sensing of canopy nitrogen. Ecol Appl 12(5): 1286-1302.
89. Sollins P, Reichle DE, Olson JS (1973) Organic matter budget and model for a southern Appalachian Liriodendron forest. Publ. EDFBIBP-73-2. Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN.
90. Stewart ID (2007) Landscape representation and the urban-rural dichotomy in empirical urban heat island literature, 1950-2006. Acta Climatologica et Chorologica Universitatis Szegediensis, Tomus 40-41.
91. Templer PH, McCann TM (2010) Effects of the hemlock woolly adelgid on nitrogen losses from urban and rural northern forest ecosystems. Ecosystems 13(8): 1215-1226.
92. Ter-Mikaelian MT, Korzukhin MD (1997) Biomass equations for sixty-five North American tree species. For Ecol Manag 97(1): 1-24.
93. Tritton LM, Hornbeck JW (1982) Northeastern Forest Experiment S Biomass equations for major tree species of the Northeast. US Dept. of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northeastern Forest Experiment Station.
94. U. S. Census Bureau (2010) www. census. gov. Accessed 2 October 2011.
95. USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (2009). Soil Survey of Middlesex County, Massachusetts.
96. Wessman CA, Aber JD, Peterson DL, Melillo JM (1988) Remote-sensing of canopy chemistry and nitrogen cycling in temperate forest ecosystems. Nature 335(6186): 154-156.
97. White C, McDonnell M (1988) Nitrogen cycling processes and soil characteristics in an urban versus rural forest. Biogeochemistry 5(2): 243-262.
98. Woodcock CE, Strahler AH (1987) The factor of scale in remote-sensing. Remote Sens Environ 21(3): 311-332.
99. Zhang XY, Friedl MA, Schaaf CB, Strahler AH, Schneider A (2004a) The footprint of urban climates on vegetation phenology. Geophys Res Lett 31(12).
100. Zhang L, Wu J, Zhen Y, Shu J (2004b) A GIS-based gradient analysis of urban landscape pattern of Shanghai metropolitan area, China. Landscape and Urban Planning 69(1): 1-16.
101. Zhu W-X, Carreiro MM (2004) Temporal and spatial variations in nitrogen transformations in deciduous forest ecosystems along an urban-rural gradient. Soil Biol Biochem 36(2): 267-278.
102. Zhu Z, Woodcock CE (2012) Object-based cloud and cloud shadow detection in Landsat imagery. Remote Sens Environ 118: 83-94.