A comparison of soil organic carbon stocks between residential turf grass and native soil |
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Authors: | Richard V Pouyat Ian D Yesilonis Nancy E Golubiewski |
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Institution: | (1) US Forest Service, Northern Research Station, c/o Baltimore Ecosystem Study, University of Maryland, 5200 Westland Blvd., Room 172, Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD 21227, USA;(2) New Zealand Centre for Ecological Economics, Massey University and Landcare Research, Private Bag 11 052, Palmerston North, New Zealand |
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Abstract: | A central principle in urban ecological theory implies that in urbanized landscapes anthropogenic drivers will dominate natural
drivers in the control of soil organic carbon storage (SOC). To assess the effect of urban land-use change on the storage
of SOC, we compared SOC stocks of turf grass and native cover types of two metropolitan areas (Baltimore, MD, and Denver,
CO) representing climatologically distinct regions in the United States. We hypothesized that introducing turf grass and management
will lead to higher SOC densities in the arid Denver area and lower densities in the mesic Baltimore area relative to native
cover types. Moreover, differences between turf grass soils will be less than differences between the native soils of each
metropolitan region. Within Baltimore, turf grass had almost a 2-fold higher SOC density at 0- to 1-m and 0- to 20-cm depths
than in rural forest soils, whereas there were no differences with soils of urban forest remnants. Moreover, urban forest
remnants had more than 70% higher SOC densities than rural forest soils. Within Denver, turf grass (>25 years of age) had
more than 2-fold higher SOC densities than in shortgrass steppe soils, while having similar densities to Baltimore turf grass
soils. By contrast, the native soils of Baltimore were almost 2-fold higher than the native steppe grass soils of Denver using
SOC densities of remnant forests as representative of native soils in the Baltimore region. These results supported our hypothesis
that turf grass systems will be similar in SOC densities across regional variations in climate, parent material, and topography.
These similarities are apparently due to greater management efforts in the Denver region to offset the constraint of climate,
i.e., anthropogenic factors (management supplements) overwhelmed native environmental factors that control SOC storage. |
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Keywords: | Land-use change Lawns Soil carbon Turf grass Urban soils |
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