Nutz4Nature

Stuyvesant Park – Lower East Side, NYC

Though it is a small and humble park in comparison with ones like Central Park, Stuyvesant Park is home to a bevy of ecosystem services.  As depicted here, it sets the stage for both recreational cultural services and regulating services like air purification and carbon sequestration (when the trees intake and make use of the carbon in the environment).  Without the trees’ performance as “resuscitators” of life, so to speak, all oxygen-breathing life would suffocate.

Central Park – Near Olmsted Flower Bed

Central Park’s value as a place for ecotourism is underestimated – indeed, the very vehicles for this ecosystem service is made of another, trees!  Within the park is a rustic wooden gazebo overlooking the terrain.  This serves as a quaint destination for visitors, thus boosting the local economy (Street vendors!  Bodega owners!  Cab drivers, etc.!), and provides natives with a vantage point to overlook nature in all its serenity.  In this way, this clearing and gazebo is a cultural ecosystem service.

Marine Park Nature Center Building

One might have thought that Prospect park would hold the title of Brooklyn’s largest park. However, Marine Park is surprisingly Brooklyn’s largest park as it features 530 acres of salt marsh precious grassland, home to a multitude of birds and native flora and fauna.

Salt marshes play a critical role in the support of human life, acting as natural filtration systems by trapping pollutants that would otherwise contaminate our bays and oceans. Salt marshes have the ability to absorb fertilizers, improve water quality, and reduce erosion. They are also among the richest wildlife habitats.

One Goose can be seen bathing in the left, far away from it’s flock, which can be seen in the distance of the same photo. Another flock of geese can be seen in the bottom right photo.

“The role of the salt marsh is even more crucial because more than 75 percent of the original salt marsh in Jamaica Bay has been destroyed. Most of that destruction was due to filling of marshes to create more land area for homes and industry. Marine Park’s salt marsh, formerly a wasteland filled with trash and abandoned cars, has been restored to its natural condition — proof that a rare and fragile ecosystem can safely exist even when it borders a heavily urban area like Brooklyn.”

Above, Algae can be seen growing on the edge of the lake. Healthy lakes need algae. Algae are important to the productivity of a lake or water body. Algae are primary producers. They use sunlight (through photosynthesis) to produce carbohydrates and are eaten by grazers such as protozoa and zooplankton (little animals like water fleas and rotifers). The zooplankton are, in turn, grazed upon by fish, which are eaten by bigger fish, and on up the food chain.

The Marine Park Nature Center is also home to a wide array of flowers, trees and bush. These paths and walking areas can beneficial to humans for it’s beauty and health benefits, while they also are home to insects, and small creatures.

The Nature Center Labels its plants for easy identification of its species!

Parks provides us with a simple way to improve emotional health – flowers. “The presence of flowers triggers happy emotions, heightens feelings of life satisfaction and affects social behavior in a positive manner.” – aboutflowers.com

As you may know, flowers are essential for the survival of bees and other insects who find home within the flowers and shrubs which otherwise wouldn’t be available without the parks in NYC! The pictures above portray species of flowers and shrubs such as “Black Chokeberry”, “Witch Alder” and “Blue Star”.

Sources: 

http://www.saltmarshalliance.org/smnc.html

http://www.aboutflowers.com/health-benefits-a-research.html

Battery Park is a 25-acre public park located at the southern tip of Manhattan, NYC. The area and park are named for the artillery batteries that were positioned there in the city’s early years to protect the settlement behind them.

The park features 32 species of trees ranging from the “blue atlas cedar” to the “Winter King”.  Trees in New York City removed an estimated 1,821 metric tons of air pollution in 1994. Parks such as the Battery in NYC parks have proven to be a key factor in the economic and ecological success of communities and are necessary throughout every major city, small town, and neighborhood of the world.

The images below display the species of trees named Willow oak, Peach oak, Pin Oak (Quercus palustris) and the London Plane (Platanus x acerifolia). I was able to capture these images during the Autumn months, portraying a riveting color scheme which everyone can enjoy!

Parks have proven that real estate value will increase with the amount of greenery and parks found in the area. A clear example to this would be the expensive real estate value found in the area overlooking Central Park, even further proved by the 20 locations found to have higher real estate values as parks were introduced to the area.(Crompton Study)

One of those areas is what you’re currently scrolling through; The Battery!

Source of statistics: http://www.eastshorepark.org/benefits_of_parks%20tpl.pdf

The different types of flowers in this park on the Upper East Side not only provide an aesthetically pleasing landscape, but also a home, meal, and pollen for themselves and other plants. During the warmer months some insects, birds, and other creatures use them as a main source of food, while others find shade and shelter in their canopies. Most importantly, though, flowers spread their DNA and continue the growth of other greenery through pollination, a vital process in any environment.

Rocks line walkways and create a beautiful terrain in any environment, but also create their own ecosystem!

Under and around rocks, you can find anything from beetles and worms to tiny colonies of fungus and lichens living together in a damp, cool habitat. Humans benefit from rocks in many ways, too; We use them for resting, shaping our terrains, and even fertilizing soil.

Trees are to animals as building are to humans – sources for almost anything! They provide sturdy and strong shelter throughout the year to a plethora of animals, from small birds to deer, and shade the ground to make cool patches in the summer months. Trees are also the main supplier of oxygen, which keeps the whole earth alive and healthy – especially important as our world becomes more polluted.

In NYC eastern grey squirrels depend on urban forests for shelter, food, reproduction etc. They use trees for nests and sometimes take refuge in tree cavities to raise their young.

New Yorkers will typically see these rodents scurrying about the city’s parks from one patch of grass to the next, but don’t realize that they contribute to the stability of the urban parks that are dependent on these small mammals.

Squirrels act as seed dispersers by caching, or digging small holes to store tree seeds and cones for later consumption. The forgotten seeds will likely germinate and nourish new trees. In this way squirrels aid with forest renewal, especially with those trees that have seeds too heavy to be dispersed by wind.

The squirrel in this picture (left) could be on his way to cach some of the seeds he collected. Squirrels tend to bury their seeds far from where they found them. This  allows tree species to spread throughout a greater distance despite obstacles such as this concrete paved path that might of otherwise kept a species isolated to one side of the park.

Here (right) is a wider look at the site where I found this fella. To the right is the West Side Highway and Hudson River, and to the left is a hill leading up to more walkways and larger green expanses.

Union Square Park, Manhattan, NYC

Bryant Park, Manhattan, NYC

Bryant Park,Manhattan, NYC

Flowers:

Flowers are often an ecosystem service people take for granted. People generally only see the importance of flowers on holidays and birthdays. But really, flowers are everywhere and can be found in a variety of ecosystems. They have an aesthetic purpose and generally uplift people’s mood. Flowers are an important part of the green spaces in NYC and serve an intrinsic purpose.

Union Square Park, Manhattan, NYC

Bryant Park, Manhattan,  NYC

Union Square Park, Manhattan, NYC

Madison Square Park

Madison Square Park, Manhattan,NYC

Trees:

Trees are one of the most important ecosystem services. Urban trees provide a multitude of environmental, economic and social benefits. Trees help counteract global climate change and improve air quality by absorbing and storing pollutants such as carbon dioxide and dust. Studies have found a correlation between the number of trees planted in an urban area and reported health. Furthermore, proximity to green spaces and large street trees is linked to lower crime rates, greater community appeal and increased property values, contributing to the high economic return of planting trees. Million trees NYC, which hopes to increase the city’s canopy cover from the current 21% to 30% by 2030, has quantified the value of these quality-of-life benefits. For more info go to:   http://milliontreesnyc.org/html/home/home.shtml

Union Square Park, Manhattan, NYC

Union Square Park, Manhattan, NYC

Union Square Park,  Manhattan, NYC

Madison Square Park, Manhattan,NYC

Plants and Shrubs:

Plants are an important ecosystem service in NYC parks. An integral role they play is as oxygen creators. This oxygen in turn is necessary for animal life, including human beings! It is quite easy to miss plants and shrubs when they are quite abundant. However, they are integral to human life. Plants provide food for omnivores and herbivores alike. Furthermore, plants add to the scenery of a park or garden.