Researchers at the Central Arizona-Phoenix Long Term Ecological Research site (CAP-LTER) have concluded that global climate change is closely linked to the ecology of cities. In a paper entitled "Global Change and the Ecology of Cities"published in the journal Science, CAP LTER principal investigator Nancy Grimm and colleagues argue that much of the current environmental impact of climate change originates in cities, so the increasing growth of cities should see similar growth in their urban footprint.
Grimm and colleagues John Briggs, Stan Faeth, and Jianguo Wu (CAP LTER and Arizona State University's School of Life Sciences); archaeologist Charles Redman (ASU School of Sustainability); Nancy Golubiewski (New Zealand Centre for Ecological Economics); and Xuemei Bai (CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems in Australia) warn that not all the changes that occur in the city stay in the city; in fact rural landscapes in the vicinity of cities show changes in soils, human settlements, the diversity of plant and animal species, and nearby ecosystems.
CAP is one of two LTER sites that focus on the ecology of cities and urban environments (the other being the Baltimore Ecosystem Study site in Maryland), with researchers studying the living and non-living components of cities with participation from city planners, engineers, sociologists, and other scientists. These studies help capture some of the socio-ecological challenges and changes that will face city planners and societies in future - changes ranging from land use and cover, urban waste discharge and urban heat island effects to global climate change, hydrosystems, biodiversity, and biogeochemical cycles.
You can read or download the full article from the Science website http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/319/5864/756