Amy Karpati Walks Into the Concrete Jungle of New York
Last fall, a small red fly with black spots made everyone go crazy.people stepping on spotted lanternfly On the pavement, slam them quickly wherever they appear. Is this reaction worth it? Or is it all because of sensational information about this invasive species?I sit down with urban ecologists and conservation biologists Amy Carpati Dive deeper into the issue and hear her thoughts on changing ecologies and ecosystems in and around New York City, and the challenges and opportunities of restoring them.
Ecologist and environmental educator Amy Karpati teaches in the Master of Sustainability Management program.
Karpati is a professor at Columbia University’s School of Professional Studies and teaches two courses, Urban Ecological Science and Reversing the Biodiversity Crisis, as MSc Sustainability Management program. Her courses focus on the study of the relationship between living things and their physical environment in urban environments, as well as biological conservation. She has worked with various environmental nonprofits, including the Pinelands Preservation Alliance in New Jersey and Teatown Lake Reservation, a 1,000-acre nature preserve and environmental education center in Westchester County, New York.
In the Q&A below, Karpati talks about invasive species, “green gentrification,” and how to change the biophysical and sociocultural aspects of cities to support biodiversity and improve urban ecosystems.
The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.
What does it mean to be an ecologist? what do you study?
Broadly speaking, ecologists study the relationship between organisms and their environment and with each other. They can specialize in different subfields, so you can have forest ecologists, aquatic ecologists, plant ecologists and animal ecologists. My background is more in urban ecology and restoration ecology, so I look at cities as ecosystems and try to figure out how we can restore the biological structure and function of urban environments to make them more sustainable.
When you define ecology, you also talk about the environment. These terms are often used interchangeably. Ecosystems and Environments – What’s the Difference?
They are a little different. Colloquially, they can be used interchangeably. Ecologists generally say that an ecosystem is the biotic or biotic part of a landscape plus the abiotic or abiotic part.
The living parts are plants, animals and microorganisms, and the inanimate parts are water, air, sunlight and minerals. The environment is abiotic, or the abiotic background in which these organisms inhabit. How all of these intersect and interact is the ecosystem.
I think in general terms most people do include both living and non-living parts when discussing the environment, which I think is technically accurate. When I think of urban environments made up of infrastructure and buildings, I just mentally detach the environment as a non-living background.
Spotted lanternflies became a problem last fall, but have you ever worried about them? How do you assess whether an invasive species is a problem?
Oh yes, I remember people wearing spotted lanternfly Halloween costumes. Yeah, it’s kind of sensational, but it’s also a big deal, you know? Exotic species are difficult because most of them have a neutral effect in the landscape. They don’t really make much of an impact, but every once in a while, a non-native species becomes invasive. So it has bad effects on the rest of our ecosystem. Spotted lanternfly in the city. It’s still a pest because it can attack street and park trees, but I think a lot of people are worried about it because it exists in protected forest areas outside the city.
A spotted lanternfly showing its wings. photo: Moggwai the Wandering through creative sharing
Seeing one would drive my friends crazy trying to kill flies. Do you feel the same way?
I do. I just find it hard not to be pessimistic about who is actually in control of it. I don’t know how much of a difference this makes. People just step on them… I don’t think it will stop the invasion, but at least, it raises public awareness of invasive species, which I guess has some value.
You also mentioned forests outside of cities. How do you stop invasive species?
So, let’s start here – the urban landscape has changed dramatically from what it used to be. Manhattan was once a temperate deciduous forest. Obviously, you look out the window and you can’t see. People primarily think of plants, but we have a lot of non-native plant species that grow in cities. Some might say we have to remove them and try to bring back native species, but those native species co-evolved with the native landscape. We don’t have that native landscape anymore, so we can’t expect those native species to survive in Manhattan.
Now, some ecologists will say there is value in these exotic species growing themselves from sidewalk cracks, performing the same functions of carbon sequestration, stormwater control and temperature regulation. They grow here without our help, because they can tolerate the environment, so the control of invasive species in the city is more meticulous.
If you’re looking outside of cities, where you do have more native ecosystems, like forests, then the real problem is when these invasive species get into those systems and wreak havoc. In cities, they don’t really threaten the native ecosystem. It was such an artificial hodgepodge landscape to begin with, but the topic of controlling the species is an open debate.
In your work, you talk about improving ecosystem function and ecosystem services. What are these functions and services?
It might be easier to start by looking at services, since that’s the easiest way to connect with people. Ecosystem services are what ecosystems provide for our survival and sustainable development. This includes water filtration, climate mitigation, stormwater control, pollination services for our food supply, agricultural soil fertility, temperature control provided by vegetation, and erosion control.
So, take soil fertility as an example: our agriculture depends on soil fertility. Ecosystem function is the process of nutrient decomposition and natural recycling. The ecosystem service is the soil fertility provided by this decomposition.
What does the improvement of these functions look like? What creative solutions are there to slow or stop the degradation of New York City’s ecosystem?
Interestingly, this seems like an oversimplification, but basically any kind of urban greening enhances the functioning of the urban ecosystem and thus the services it provides us. Planting more trees can provide more cooling services. Restoring saltwater marshes around New York City’s coast could control storm surges and sequester carbon. Anything that enhances biodiversity in urban environments enhances ecosystem function.
If you put a green roof on your building it will help regulate the temperature. If I plant a species, it has low biodiversity. If we grow a bunch of plants, then all of a sudden you’ve created a habitat for pollinators, which provide pollination.
Did you find that urban ecological problems and solutions vary widely across New York’s boroughs?
In more residential areas, there is more greenery than in more commercial commercial areas, but the cool thing is that it has potential almost anywhere. You often think that urban greenery is just parks, and then we lament that there is not enough space for parks. But you can have green walls, corridors, alleys and bus stops. There is so much potential. They will have different values, but they still provide positive service.
Sometimes, neighborhoods experience green gentrification. have you heard of it? Green gentrification is when you think your best intentions are to add parks and green spaces to your neighborhood, but what might happen is real estate values go up. As property values rise, the original residents are priced out, so they won’t even stay to green up their neighborhoods because rich people move in.
A notorious example is altitude. I have mixed feelings about it; my students and I just talked about it in class today. I do like parts of it, and yes, it’s beautiful. I mean, it’s a cool concept to celebrate this old unused industrial infrastructure by turning it into a public, accessible green space.
What was it before?
It was a rail line that was no longer in use, and when it developed into what we now know as the High Line, they brought in landscape architects and horticulturists and carefully designed where the different plants fit the aesthetic. So it’s like this abandoned area, and all of a sudden we’ve added this lush green landscaping.
If you look at the old photos of it, it’s full of plants. But they are plants that most of us would consider weeds. We like to call it spontaneous urban vegetation. So it’s already performing that function because it’s grown naturally by the urban biota. It is doing carbon sequestration and stormwater control and is a green space. It’s just not an intentional green space, so for most of us it doesn’t have the value that an intentionally planned and manicured green space does.
Do you have an idea for how the boroughs can address urban ecological issues?
As you might expect, the answer is unfair. A lot of it comes down to funding and resources at the community level to figure out how much green space can be there, but also maintained. It’s too fragmented. You have your neighborhood level stuff and your city level stuff, but there’s no question that the green space is distributed unfairly.
What is still a challenge for you in this field and why?
It’s not so much science as it is; it’s the sociopolitical aspect. If we talk about sustainability or conservation, we have the scientific and technological tools to advance the conservation sustainability agenda, but we don’t have the social or political will to actually implement these solutions. This is the biggest and most frustrating challenge – the components of human behavior and the lack of human motivation to truly recognize that we face a climate crisis and a biodiversity crisis that needs to be addressed now – or rather, yesterday.
Where should readers interested in this field go next?
It depends on people’s level of understanding.Scientific journal articles are great, but also Noisy Gardens: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World Emma Marris. It challenges our idea of what nature is and seeks to deconstruct it so we can rebuild it in a way that truly acknowledges that nature exists in our cities and deserves protection or enhancement. We can create more natural environments in our cities, and at this point we must. It’s a good read, albeit a bit controversial in the field of ecology. It makes the argument that nature is everywhere, not just in Yosemite or Yellowstone National Park, but even on this disused railroad line on the cover of the book.
Bhavya Jha Be a sophomore MPA candidate Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs.
