CO2 in the Shrinking City: The Role of Vegetation Phenology In Carbon Dynamics of Post-Industrial Urban Detroit
Abstract
Cities have been identified as important sources of carbon dioxide (CO2) because of their anthropogenic contributions that include road traffic, industry, and residential and commercial heating. Therefore, understanding urban carbon dynamics is especially important for decision-making in terms of mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. Much of the research done in urban areas has focused on cities with substantial urban growth such as Phoenix, AZ or Denver, CO. However, in post-industrial cities undergoing recent population decline, such as Detroit, MI, CO2 dynamics may not behave the same as these urban growth centers. This is because they are faced with a changing economy which resulting in large amounts of abandoned properties and vacant lots. In shrinking cities, these abandoned spaces cover considerable amounts of the urban landscape and tend to become overgrown with vegetation; in Detroit, MI, vacant lots comprise nearly seventeen percent of the city. Therefore, we expect that the vegetation phenology will play an especially large role in the carbon dynamics of shrinking cities. Here we present micrometeorological data, including urban canopy greenness (beginning in August 2018) and CO2 fluxes (beginning in August 2019). This data is from an eddy covariance tower and co-located phenocam on the rooftop of the Physic Building at Wayne State University in midtown Detroit, MI. We highlight the relationship between phenology of the urban canopy and the CO2 dynamics. We note that this is probably not unlike the situation in other cities undergoing population decline. If vacant lots and urban greenspaces are properly managed in these shrinking cities, they may be important factors in mitigating climate changes associated with urban carbon emissions.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2020
- Bibcode:
- 2020AGUFMGC1020007S
- Keywords:
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- 3307 Boundary layer processes;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES;
- 0414 Biogeochemical cycles;
- processes;
- and modeling;
- BIOGEOSCIENCES;
- 1630 Impacts of global change;
- GLOBAL CHANGE;
- 1631 Land/atmosphere interactions;
- GLOBAL CHANGE