Publications by authors named "L R Hutyra"
Recent studies have shown that methane emissions are underestimated by inventories in many US urban areas. This has important implications for climate change mitigation policy at the city, state, and national levels. Uncertainty in both the spatial distribution and sectoral allocation of urban emissions can limit the ability of policy makers to develop appropriately focused emission reduction strategies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTree growth is a key mechanism driving carbon sequestration in forest ecosystems. Environmental conditions are important regulators of tree growth that can vary considerably between nearby urban and rural forests. For example, trees growing in cities often experience hotter and drier conditions than their rural counterparts while also being exposed to higher levels of light, pollution, and nutrient inputs.
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- Street trees enhance climate resilience by reducing urban heat and managing stormwater runoff, yet the sources of their water in mesic cities are not well understood.
- This study in Boston analyzed the water sources for Acer platanoides trees using stable isotopes and found that during the summer of 2021, most of the water absorbed came from precipitation, particularly from heavy rainfall in July.
- Despite the current reliance on precipitation, the increasing frequency of droughts due to climate change may pose challenges for water availability for these urban trees in the future.
Article Synopsis
- Temperate forests are losing over 20% of their land to urban development, which negatively impacts soil microbial communities.
- Urbanization decreases the connection between trees and beneficial ectomycorrhizal fungi, leading to reduced fungal growth in urban forests, while urban forest edges contribute to a different mix of microbes, including pathogens and bacteria that affect nutrient cycling.
- The study indicates that these changes could lead to increased greenhouse gas emissions and soil microbiome dysfunction as urban areas expand, affecting even rural forests in the long run.
Article Synopsis
- - The study evaluated the link between school greenness and academic performance in 281,695 fourth-grade students from various school types in Santiago, Chile, revealing that greener schools were tied to better standardized test scores in mathematics and reading.
- - A 0.1 increase in greenness was associated with a notable increase in math (36.9 points) and reading (1.84 points) scores, as well as higher chances of meeting learning standards, especially in public schools.
- - Findings suggest that enhancing greenness in schools could help improve education outcomes and reduce educational inequalities in urban settings, particularly for students in public schools.