The consequences of urban land transformation on net primary productivity in the United States

We use data from two satellites and a terrestrial carbon model to quantify the impact of urbanization on the carbon cycle and food production in the US as a result of reduced net primary productivity (NPP). Our results show that urbanization is taking place on the most fertile lands and hence has a disproportionately large overall negative impact on NPP. Urban land transformation in the US has reduced the amount of carbon fixed through photosynthesis by 0.04 pg per year or 1.6% of the pre-urban input. The reduction is enough to offset the 1.8% gain made by the conversion of land to agricultural use, even though urbanization covers an area less than 3% of the land surface in the US and agricultural lands approach 29% of the total land area. At local and regional scales, urbanization increases NPP in resource-limited regions and through localized warming “urban heat” contributes to the extension of the growing season in cold regions. In terms of biologically available energy, the loss of NPP due to urbanization of agricultural lands alone is equivalent to the caloric requirement of 16.5 million people, or about 6% of the US population.