Wed, Aug 17, 2022: 8:30 AM-8:45 AM
518C
Background/Question/MethodsUrban ecology is an inherently interdisciplinary field, but its theoretical scope remains limited to reductive understandings of urban processes. Here, I examine the concept of the luxury effect in urban ecology, or the observed tendency for urban biodiversity to exhibit positive correlations with household income in a given area. Using my own empirical data from sampling of wild bees in the City of Detroit, Michigan, USA and its suburbs, which display a negative correlation between bee genus diversity and household income, I provide a counter-example to the luxury effect and outline alternative theoretical foundations in the sub-field of urban political ecology. Wild bees were sampled in 24 lawns throughout the city and suburbs of Detroit, MI, USA, each sampled 4 times throughout the summer of 2016. Both pan traps and netting were used at each site, and bee specimens were then identified to the genus level. US Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates were used to aggregate median household income data within 1-kilometer foraging diameter ranges extending from each sampling site, and a linear mixed model was used to analyze the correlation between bee diversity indices and aggregated median household income data.
Results/ConclusionsResults from the Detroit wild bee study show a strong negative correlation between median household income and bee diversity. This runs counter to the luxury effect hypothesis, and along with a number of other studies showing similarly anomalous results, it begs for a more robust theoretical foundation towards a better understanding of urban socio-ecological systems. One possible reason for this current lack in explanatory power is that urban ecology's reductive understanding of urban processes do not adequately account for the dimensions of urban land cover change and uneven urban development, which are major components in the socio-ecological makeup of cities. Urban political ecology's framing of political economic drivers would offer a more robust and complete framework for interpreting urban ecological empirical data. In this case, studies that stand as anomalies to the luxury effect concept are better understood when taking into account how the urban political economy drives urban land cover change. Urban ecology and urban political ecology would mutually benefit as academic disciplines if channels of communication were more deliberately opened between the fields.
Results/ConclusionsResults from the Detroit wild bee study show a strong negative correlation between median household income and bee diversity. This runs counter to the luxury effect hypothesis, and along with a number of other studies showing similarly anomalous results, it begs for a more robust theoretical foundation towards a better understanding of urban socio-ecological systems. One possible reason for this current lack in explanatory power is that urban ecology's reductive understanding of urban processes do not adequately account for the dimensions of urban land cover change and uneven urban development, which are major components in the socio-ecological makeup of cities. Urban political ecology's framing of political economic drivers would offer a more robust and complete framework for interpreting urban ecological empirical data. In this case, studies that stand as anomalies to the luxury effect concept are better understood when taking into account how the urban political economy drives urban land cover change. Urban ecology and urban political ecology would mutually benefit as academic disciplines if channels of communication were more deliberately opened between the fields.