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Urban, suburban and exurban environments are important ecosystems and their extent is increasing in the U.S. The conversion of wild or managed ecosystems to urban ecosystems is resulting in ecosystem homogenization across cities, where neighborhoods in very different parts of the country have similar patterns of roads, residential lots, commercial areas and aquatic features. We tested the hypothesis that this homogenization alters ecological structure and functions relevant to ecosystem carbon and nitrogen dynamics, with continental scale implications. The research provides a framework for understanding the impacts of urban land use change from local to continental scales. This project encompassed datasets ranging from household surveys to regional-scale remote sensing across six metropolitan statistical areas (MSA) that cover the major climatic regions of the US (Phoenix, AZ, Miami, FL, Baltimore, MD, Boston, MA, St. Paul, MN and Los Angeles, CA) to determine how household characteristics correlate with landscaping decisions, land management practices and ecological structure and functions at local, regional and continental scales. The results of this work transforms scientific understanding of an important and increasingly common ecosystem type (‘suburbia’) and the consequences to carbon storage and nitrogen pollution at multiple scales. In addition, it advances our understanding of how humans perceive, value and manage their surroundings. The project leveraged an extensive, multi-scale program of education and outreach associated with ongoing LTER and/or ULTRA-EX projects. Activities included K-12 education and outreach to community groups, city/regional planners, natural history museums, state and local agencies and non-governmental organizations. Graduate students also participated in a Distributed Graduate Seminar in Sustainability Science (DGSS) initiated by NCEAS and the University of Minnesota Institute on Environment.