Most people in the US live in cities but may not understand the ecological processes going on around them. People influence ecological conditions and at the same time, we are influenced by those conditions. As an Ecology Explorer, you will be studying your schoolyard (or backyard) as part of an urban ecosystem.

What is an urban ecosystem?

A pond, a forest, a meadow, a terrarium, a fish tank: all of these are ecosystems. Each includes a community of living things (plants, animals, microbial organisms) interacting with nonliving things (sunlight, nutrients, soil, water, wind).

An urban ecosystem includes people among the living things, and the structures they build among the nonliving things. In an urban ecosystem, humans influence ecological factors (plants, air, soil, animals), AND human decisions (where to build houses, parks, highways, schools) are influenced by ecological factors.

Ecologists study interactions among living organisms as well as interactions of organisms and their physical environment. The data you collect and the experiments you complete will help scientists understand how the Phoenix urban ecosystem works. All of the investigations described for schoolyard research also can be done in your backyard.