Hello and welcome to the fascinating world of plants and water in cities! I am a research professor at the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University, and my lab investigates how plants, water, and heat interact in our cities.
Do you live in a city? It’s highly likely that you do, as most people on Earth now live in cities. Our urban environments are largely shaped by our collective actions and heavily affected by climate change and novel weather patterns stemming from it. People often think about cities as heavily built-up and paved environments. However, the largest share of contemporary cities in the United States is residential land cover, including suburban and peri-urban areas. About half of the total land area of US cities is covered by soil and plants. One-fiftieth of the US land area — an area the size of Florida — is covered by grass lawns. These living landscapes strongly influence local and regional ecology, hydrology, and microclimates, along with water and energy budgets at municipal and watershed scales.
In my lab, we address scientific uncertainties related to the ecology, hydrology, and biometeorology of urban environments. Every project we work on starts with direct measurements in cities that include sap flow of urban trees, evapotranspiration from lawns, and many others related to soil, air, and sunlight. We visit parks, residential yards, and public schools, partnering with municipal authorities, residents, teachers, and K-12 students to collect detailed datasets. These datasets help us establish quantitative relationships between plant water use, plant physiology and ecology, landscape composition, environmental conditions, and management practices.
It is ironic how much is still left to learn about our own environments! Our scientific findings often go against common assumptions and expectations. Indeed, cities are very different from natural ecosystems, and scientific research is vital for understanding the functioning of these novel environments. Building on these insights, we develop actionable solutions for maintaining healthy urban forests, conserving water, mitigating urban heat, and building climate resilience.
In addition to research, I teach at the School of Sustainability, help facilitate the Sustainability Undergraduate Research Experience program, and engage with the Central Arizona-Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research community, HeatReady team, and Urban Nature. Outside the university, I enjoy convening conference sessions, as well as participating in and organizing outreach events, for which I develop plant-, water-, and heat-themed activities and demonstrations. Finally, if and when I still have time after all this, I enjoy cooking creative meals (that still sometimes baffle my husband but mostly delight our two sons), having endless conversations in the kitchen with friends and family, walking around the city, and going on hikes in nature.