Group commissions study on local carrying capacity, impacts of growth on ecosystem services; Charlottesville, VA

Charlottesville Tomorrow News Center: Scientist explains ASAP research on impacts of population growth on local ecosystems:
Trees capture carbon dioxide from the air. Open space helps filter groundwater to make it safer for drinking. These are two examples of “ecosystem services” that can be affected by population growth, but until now there has been no attempt to study what links there may be between the two.
The group Advocates for a Sustainable Albemarle Population (ASAP) recently raised $112,000 to conduct a series of studies to establish an “optimal sustainable population size” for Charlottesville and Albemarle County. The City contributed $11,000 and the County contributed $25,000 towards five studies, one of which was to analyze how different levels of population growth would affect the ability of the landscape to provide ecosystem services."