Lawn management intensity leads to contrasting effects on belowground ecology and turfgrass aesthetic

Home lawns are one of the most common urban land surfaces in the United States and provision many cultural and ecological benefits. Many of these benefits arise from turfgrass soils and their belowground ecosystems. As homeowner interest in managing lawns for diverse ecosystem services grows, it is important to understand how varying management practices affect these goals and how efforts to manage belowground ecology may alter lawn quality and aesthetic. In this study we utilized an experimental lawn system to contrast the effects of management intensity on soil fauna communities, microbial biomass, and decomposition. Further, we simultaneously investigate how the prioritization of these belowground organisms and processes may inadvertently alter lawn quality. Our results show that decreasing management intensity leads to increases in the abundance, richness, and diversity of soil fauna communities, with these changes being most apparent in certain taxa like predatory mites (e.g. Mesostigmata). Despite significant increases in soil fauna, we did not observe downstream changes to soil microbial biomass carbon or nitrogen or decomposition, all aspects of soil ecosystem functioning which are mediated by soil fauna. Further, turf aesthetic assessments revealed substantial decreases in lawn quality in the presence of low-intensity management. Collectively, these results highlight the nuanced ecology of turfgrass systems, and the need to temper societal expectations for turfgrass aesthetics if we are to promote a shift towards valuing ecological integrity in turfgrass appraisals.