THE URBAN EVOLUTION OF GEOCHEMICAL CYCLES (Invited Presentation)

Urban geochemical cycles have exerted a major influence on the elemental composition of the Earth's surface. Furthermore, urban geochemical cycles have evolved over centuries as Earth's population grows, infrastructure ages, and societies alter them. This presentation will illustrate how elemental cycles of carbon, nitrogen, and salts evolve across successive generations of urban ecosystems via shifts in urban selective pressures, urban adaptations, and human-accelerated weathering in built environments. Specifically, we will explore long-term trends in carbon, nitrogen, and dissolved salts in urban environments over the previous century. Then, we will investigate the importance of underlying mechanisms and drivers using a combination of geochemical source tracking, laboratory experiments, and high-frequency sensor measurements. Finally, we will discuss a framework to promote integration of different geochemical approaches and methods for new hypothesis generation and collaborations in urban geochemistry.