@article{c49f152e87cc49a9a5f2cdd644d856f5,
title = "A landscape approach to nitrogen cycling in urban lawns reveals the interaction between topography and human behaviors",
abstract = "Lawns are a common ecosystem type in human-dominated landscapes which can have negative impacts on water quality due to fertilizer applications, but also host a range of ecosystem services. While many studies have addressed water and nitrogen (N) dynamics in lawns, few have considered how topography interacts with human behaviors to control these dynamics. Our overarching objective was to determine if mesoscale topography (hillslopes within lawns) interacts with human behavior (fertilizer use) influencing patterns of N mobilization and removal in lawns. To that end, we measured several hydrobiogeochemical characteristics associated with N dynamics along topographic gradients in fertilized and unfertilized residential and institutional lawns. We found topographic gradients affect the hydrobiogeochemistry of lawns, with significant effects of landscape position (top versus toe slope versus bottomland swales), but with direction and strength of the effect often varying among different lawn types (exurban versus suburban front yards versus suburban backyards versus institutional). Fertilizer application did not affect the hydrobiogeochemical properties of lawns. Rather, results from this study suggest lawns in suburban front yards were at greatest risk of N mobilization due to a complex suite of characteristics including proximity to impervious surfaces, swales with low saturated infiltration rates, and potential vulnerability to N deposition from vehicles. This study highlights the need to consider landscape controls of water and N fluxes and how they interact with human behaviors to better understand how these landscapes function. These results contribute to the emerging understanding of the structure, function and environmental impacts of lawns.",
author = "Suchy, {Amanda K.} and Groffman, {Peter M.} and Band, {Lawrence E.} and Duncan, {Jonathan M.} and Gold, {Arthur J.} and Grove, {J. Morgan} and Locke, {Dexter H.} and Laura Templeton",
note = "Funding Information: This work is part of a larger project seeking to understand coupled natural-human system dynamics of nitrogen in residential landscapes funded by the National Science Foundation CNH Grant (1615560). We would like to thank B. Glass-Siegel, D. Dillon, J. Mallinoff, A. Phillips, S. Jiang and N. Sonti for extensive help with field work. L. Martel provided invaluable support with laboratory analyses. Finally, we would like to extend our deepest thanks to the homeowners who graciously and enthusiastically volunteered their lawns for this study. The findings and conclusions in this publication are those of the author(s) and should not be construed to represent any official USDA or U.S. Government determination or policy. Funding Information: This work is part of a larger project seeking to understand coupled natural-human system dynamics of nitrogen in residential landscapes funded by the National Science Foundation CNH Grant (1615560). We would like to thank B. Glass-Siegel, D. Dillon, J. Mallinoff, A. Phillips, S. Jiang and N. Sonti for extensive help with field work. L. Martel provided invaluable support with laboratory analyses. Finally, we would like to extend our deepest thanks to the homeowners who graciously and enthusiastically volunteered their lawns for this study. The findings and conclusions in this publication are those of the author(s) and should not be construed to represent any official USDA or U.S. Government determination or policy. Funding Information: This work was funded by the National Science Foundation Coupled Natural-Humans Systems Grant (1615560). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG part of Springer Nature.",
year = "2021",
month = jan,
doi = "10.1007/s10533-020-00738-8",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "152",
pages = "73--92",
journal = "Biogeochemistry",
issn = "0168-2563",
publisher = "Springer Netherlands",
number = "1",
}
