The importance of choice on ecosystem properties

As the field of urban ecology matures, we are gradually incorporating humans as integral components of ecosystems who both cause changes in ecosystem properties and are in turn affected by these changes.  Individual choices about resource consumption and landscape management (e.g., vegetation and lawn care) are important because these choices, in the aggregate, are important in determining the overall composition and functioning of urban ecosystems. For example, myriad individual choices about lawn fertilization at the backyard scale affect biogeochemical cycling patterns at city-wide and regional scales. Choices regarding housing and land cover types (i.e., impervious surfaces versus vegetation) also affect the overall heat and water fluxes of urbanized landscapes. The Holy Grail of urban ecology is to integrate human behavior into a seamless, transdisciplinary model of urban ecosystem dynamics.  Understanding how choices are made, and their impact on structure and function of urban ecosystems is also needed to guide future environmental policies that aim to increase the sustainability of urbanized environments. Command-and-control regulatory approaches that have been the key tool for reducing pollution for the past 30 years will need to be supplemented by softer approaches designed to modify individual choices.  These may include targeted education, development of adaptive management approaches and price incentives/disincentives.  Similar policies could be used to modify urban hydrologic balances, reduce heat island impacts, restore urban streams, reduce wildfire threats and increase beneficial biodiversity.