Ecosystem Evolution Biomimicry of the Built Environment

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Ecosystem EvolutionBiomimicry of theBuilt
Environment

• Justin BorevitzEcology EvolutionUniversity of
  Chicagohttp//borevitzlab.uchicago.edu/

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What brings you here today?

• Focus the Nation
• Nation teach in about global warming
• Gandhi, assassinated 60 years ago
• Mahatma set out the template for environmental
  sustainability, global peace and economic justice.

We have to be the change we want to see in the
world
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Gourmet Gardens
 
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Short, mixed, and Tall grass Prairie
http//climate.konza.ksu.edu/
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Undergraduate Field Course Prairie Ecosystems
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Outline

• My Research
• Model Species to Model Ecosystem
• Sustainability of Prairie Ecosystems
• A Model for UrbanEcosystems
• Upcoming projects
• Woodlawn Center for Urban Ecology
• Center for Ecological Conservation Genetics

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Global and Local Population Structure
Arabidopsis thaliana
Olivier Loudet
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Seasonal Variation
Matt Horton
Megan Dunning
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Sweden Spain
Seasons in the Growth Chamber
Seasons in the Growth Chamber

• Changing Day length
• Cycle Light Intensity
• Cycle Light Colors
• Cycle Temperature

• Changing Day length
• Cycle Light Intensity
• Cycle Light Colors
• Cycle Temperature

Geneva Scientific/ Percival
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Genetics of Speciationalong a Hybrid Zone
Aquilegia pubescens
Aquilegia formosa
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EcoSystemsBiology
Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore
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Real Time Ecosystem Monitoring

• HPWREN
• San Diego wireless ecological data sensing.

Fermilab AmeriFlux site, provided by Timothy J.
Martin (ANL-EVS)
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Lake Michigan sand dunes
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Nielsen and Hole, 1963
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The Energy Problem

• How will society meet growing energy demands in a
  sustainable manner?
• Fossil-fuels currently supply 80 of world
  energy demand.

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Are Biofuels the Answer?...
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The Next Generation of Biofuels Greenhouse-Neutra
l Biofuels from High-Diversity Low-Input
Prairie Ecosystems by David Tilman University
of Minnesota
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Burgeoning real estate market in Greenland
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House
Are we getting to big for our house?
Footprint
Dr. Mathis Wackernagel
www.FootprintNetwork.org
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Global equity
Who is getting what?
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6 Times as much plastic as plankton.
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The human footprint on Earth
P. Kareiva et al., Science 316, 1866 -1869
(2007)
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Earth's shipping lanes and network of roads
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Human Ecosystems?

• Are you part of an ecosystem?
• Are you right now in an ecosystem?
• Are you governed by the laws of nature?
• A human built ecosystem
• How sustainable, independent, resilient, and
  resurgent is the urban ecosystem compared to a
  natural ecosystem?

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Prairies - Sustainable ecosystems

• Regularly Disturbed
• Fire, grass, large herbivores
• Ecosystem services
• Prairie hay biofuel
• Carbon Nitrogen sequestration
• Oxygen generation
• Ground water recharge
• Erosion prevention
• Biodiversity, wild life habitat

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Design principals of a tree

• Makes oxygen
• Sequesters carbon
• Fixes nitrogen
• Distils water
• Accrues Solar energy as fuel
• Makes complex sugars and food
• Creates microclimates
• Changes colors with the seasons
• Self replicates
• Knock it down and use it in the bathroom.
• William McDonough, Cradle to Cradle

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Urban Ecosystems

• Urban gardens
• Nasa growth chambers
• Living machines
• Recycle wastes into water and food.
• Urban labs growing water
• Buildings with a metabolism

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Frances Whitehead James Kutyla Architecture
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City Farm Resource Center
Growing Home
Chicagos Urban Farms
Growing Power
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Controlled Ecological Life Support System

• Mars The red planet where plants recycle human
  wastes. I am also developing plant growth
  chambers research lately. 200sq recycle all air
  and water for 4 people, but to get enough food
  for 1 person

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200 sq feet growth chamber filters water and
wastes for 4 people
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200 sq feet growth chamber grows enough food for
1 person
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Biosphere2, Arizona
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Eco CityLiuzhouMcDonough
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Urban Labs Martin FelsenGrowing Water Chicago
2106
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Urban Labs Martin FelsenGrowing Water Chicago
2106
Eco-Boulevard
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References

• Biomimicry
• Natural Capitalism
• Ecology of Commerce
• Cradle to cradle
• Gapminder.com
• TED.com
• Our pending proposals
• Woodlawn Center for Urban Ecology
• Center for Ecological Conservation Genetics

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Lifes Game

• Games to be played to win (finite, winners and
  losers)
• Games to be played to play (infinite)
• Which game are we playing, which gave is life
  playing?
• Rules of the game
• Opensource, creative commons. No secrets, no
  cheating, or stealing (from nature or the
  future), just who thought of it first and who can
  put it into practice? AND who can help others
  help themselves?
• Competition lets get fit together, social
  training.
• Which game is globalization playing?
• Fit economy, not a shot in the arm.

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Ages of our Virtual Interconnectedness

• 1990s decade of Microsoft - personal computing
• 2000s decade of Google (information distribution
  network)
• 2010s decade of Wikipedia ReadWrite era
• Distributed Human Knowledge
• Goal as many authors as readers
• As many page edits as views

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Jared Diamond

• Collapse and Guns Germs and Steal
• NYtimes opEd
• Americans use 32 times the energy and generate
  32 times the waste as compared with the
  developing world. That means our population will
  be 72Billion people.
• Living on Earth Interview
• GELLERMAN So what country do you think we should
  emulate?
• DIAMOND ..emulate ourselves .. air quality.
  smog ozone
• the Himalayan country of Bhutan ..king has
  proclaimed that their goal isto maximize the
  gross national happiness

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Forest, Fisheries, Solutions

• Imagine that the earths great forests, the lungs
  of the plant, were healthy and completely clean,
  imagine that the oceans were full of fish and
  whales and not full of plastic.imagine of that
  we harvested them all sustainability at their
  maximum production, like stewards of the earth
  living in her balancethat will take an
  organization of active individuals interconnected
  from the local to the global scale.
• With this natural capital, we can live off
  interest, maximize our return on investment,
  rather than mining the environment.
• We just ended smoking in Chicago, lets end the
  smoking of the planet, she the lung cancer
  becomes malignant.
• We first observed, then discovered the mechanism,
  organized international forums, participated in
  the global community, came up with agreements,
  then decreased limits, enforced laws and
  treaties, and in 50 years the ozone hole should
  be back to normal..
• The economy doesnt need a shot in the arm, it
  needs a diet and a fitness training program, some
  psychological therapy.. ..
• Solutions require a marriage between Sociology
  and Ecology (SocioEcology), human coupled natural
  systems.