Patch dynamics is a core concept in contemporary ecosystem science that seeks to explain complex systems within which biological components – including humans – interact with physical environments over time.  Urban patch dynamics models involve the identification of patch areas based on distinct land-cover compositions, such as community gardens.  We ask: defined by patch boundaries, how do land-cover signatures such as community gardens modulate the flows of people, information, materials, water and nutrients? 

Results/Conclusions

This paper first operationalizes patch dynamics for ecological study of community gardens.  Second, we describe how ecological services to human communities may result from  flows generated in community garden patches, including pollination services among others.   Third, stressing the reciprocity between social and natural dynamics in the urban ecosystem, we rely on the resilience framework to situate community garden patches, the people who garden within them, and a single environmental service, pollination, in order to model a feedback loop that may confer resilience in urban social-ecological systems.