Rules of Life in the Urban Biome

Sponsor: W. M. Keck Foundation

PI: Jennifer Bhatnagar

Co-Is/Co-PIs: Pamela Templer, Lucy Hutyra, Jeff Geddes

Cities are expanding around the world, with unexpected impacts on the non-human
organisms that live there. Recently, it was discovered that urban trees grow four times faster than rural trees, despite there being a multitude of environmental stressors in cities and the loss of typical below ground mechanisms for nutrient acquisition, stress tolerance, and pathogen protection. This project will test the hypothesis that urban trees operate by a different “rule of life” than rural trees, uniquely taking advantage of above ground atmospheric pollution as a source of nutrients, water, and stress protection.

To test this hypothesis, the first study of its kind will determine how nutrients and water are acquired by city trees using a recently established, model urban-to-rural tree gradient. Through a combination of field-based nitrogen, water, and atmospheric chemistry measurements, plant and microbial biochemical analyses, plant surface microscopy, and air pollution manipulation experiments, this project will establish a foundational understanding of tree resilience and growth strategies within urban ecosystems. The data generated will provide new knowledge about the physiological capabilities of organisms under extreme environmental stress and the impacts on ecosystem services they provide.