Coupled Human-Natural Systems
Red colors identify areas in the Susquehanna watershed where agricultural land cover declined and housing density increased between 1990 and 2000
We participate in an interdisciplinary team called the Transition Zone Ecosystem Initiative. We have identified hot spots of agricultural land transition (see image to the right), and we are now assessing environmental and socio-economic controls on these transitions and documenting environmental change that may occur as agricultural land is transformed by residential development.
In the past, our research in this area focused on the urban ecology of Phoenix Arizona. One recent project quantified the effects of urban atmospheric deposition on deserts near that city.
