Studying Urban Ecosystems
Modern ecology, and especially urban ecology, recognizes that both environmental and social factors influence urban ecosystems. Therefore, both factors must be considered in order to understand how to steward urban habitats and guide human interactions with the environment. Mount Auburn was the ideal place for a study of these factors and how they interact, given that its founders envisioned it as a garden burial ground where people could contemplate the cycle of life integrated with a quiet naturalistic wooded place.
"Lesley’s approach to urban ecology is in step with the latest ways to educate people about their local environment,” said Dave Morimoto, director of Lesley’s Natural Sciences and Mathematics department, who is writing a book on human interactions with the natural environment.
"In the past, researchers were focused on cities and pristine environments exclusive of each other," he said, "but now, more researchers are looking at both together. The world population of humans is over 50 percent urban, and over 81 percent urban in the United States. With so much of the world’s population currently living in urban areas, places such as Mount Auburn offer us the opportunity to learn more about how to sustain a healthy ecosystem for both people and wildlife.”
Examples of recent undergraduate study are the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and research comparing vegetation at high and low bat activity sites.
Read more about the Lesley-Mount Auburn collaboration in the Friends of Mount Auburn magazine Sweet Auburn Volume 2 (PDF).