Award Abstract # 1615560
CNH-L: Multi-Scale Coupled Natural-Human System Dynamics of Nitrogen in Residential Landscapes

NSF Org: RISE
Integrative and Collaborative Education and Research (ICER)
Recipient: RESEARCH FOUNDATION OF THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
Initial Amendment Date: July 25, 2016
Latest Amendment Date: June 22, 2021
Award Number: 1615560
Award Instrument: Standard Grant
Program Manager: Richard Yuretich
RISE
 Integrative and Collaborative Education and Research (ICER)
GEO
 Directorate for Geosciences
Start Date: July 15, 2016
End Date: June 30, 2022 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $1,600,000.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $1,600,000.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2016 = $1,600,000.00
History of Investigator:
  • Peter Groffman (Principal Investigator)
    pgroffman@gc.cuny.edu
  • Lawrence Band (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Jonathan Grove (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Robert Johnston (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Jenny Kao-Kniffin (Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: Research Foundation CUNY - Advanced Science Research Center
85 SAINT NICHOLAS TER
NEW YORK
NY  US  10031-1246
(212)413-3330
Sponsor Congressional District: 13
Primary Place of Performance: Research Foundation CUNY - Advanced Science Research Center
NY  US  10031-1246
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
13
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): EUYXHRL5MLL3
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s): DYN COUPLED NATURAL-HUMAN
Primary Program Source: 01001617DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s): 1691
Program Element Code(s): 169100
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.050

ABSTRACT

Runoff from urban and suburban landscapes has long been known to have a significant effect upon the water quality of streams that receive this discharge. A particular concern in this area is the export of excess nitrate from the use of fertilizers on lawns, which can promote algal or microbial growth in receiving waters. Recent research has indicated that such nitrate export is less than expected, but the reasons for this are unclear. This project will investigate both the natural processes that may regulate the retention and discharge of nitrogen from lawns, as well as the sociological forces that influence the decisions of homeowners concerning the level of lawn management. The results will be incorporated into a model that will identify the locations and episodes of high nitrate in runoff in order to determine how human decisions and natural processes work together to control these concentrations. The conclusions will be applicable to a wide variety of urban and suburban locations across the country and the project will have direct benefit to the management of the environmental health of Chesapeake Bay.

This project models multi-scale, coupled-system dynamics of nitrogen in residential landscapes to determine how biogeochemical, hydrologic, and human behavioral processes interact to control nitrogen exports from residential ecosystems and landscapes. These models will coordinate information from household surveys, existing data, and geographic information system analyses to evaluate interconnected spatial patterns of lawn management and hydrologic sensitivity. The overarching hypothesis is that large-scale social and institutional influences often induce homeowner lawn-care practices contrary to homeowner preferences, but that significant changes in behavior can be motivated via systematic incentives. Field studies on plots varying in land use history (forest versus agriculture), site management (fertilizer input) and age will be established to test hypotheses about the limits of nitrogen sequestration in lawn soil profiles. Geographic, biogeochemical, and social-science data will be analyzed using ecohydrological models to produce spatial analyses of potential hotspots of lawn fertilizer export at the watershed scale. The effect of alternative policies and homeowner practices on land management and nitrogen exports can then be evaluated rigorously.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

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A.K. Suchy, P. M. Groffman, L. E. Band, J. M. Duncan, A. J. Gold, J. M. Grove, D. H. Locke, and L. Templeton "A landscape approach to nitrogen cycling in urban lawns reveals the interaction between topography and human behaviors." Biogeochemistry , 2021 10.1007/s10533-020-00738-8.
A. Rai, B. Minsker, W. Sullivan, L. Band "A novel computational green infrastructure design framework for hydrologic and human benefits" Environmental Software and Modelling, , 2019 10.1016/j.envsoft.2019.03.016
D.H. Locke, A.M. York, A.M. and J.M. Grove "Know your watershed and know your neighbor: paths to supporting stormwater management in Baltimore and Phoenix." Landscape and Urban Planning. , v.195 , 2020 , p.103714 10.1016/j.landurbplan.2019.103714
G.L. Thompson and J. Kao-Kniffin "Urban grassland management implications for soil C and N dynamics: A microbial perspective" Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution , v.7 , 2019 , p.315 10.3389/fevo.2019.00315
J.D Smith, L. Lin, J.D. Quinn, and L.E. Band "Guidance on evaluating parametric model uncertainty at decision-relevant scales." Hydrology and Earth Systems Science , v.26 , 2022 , p.2519 10.5194/hess-2021-324
L. Leonard, B. Miles, B. Heidari, L. Lin, A.M. Castronova, B. Minsker, J. Lee, C. Scaife and L. Band "Development of a participatory Green Infrastructure design, visualization and evaluation system in a cloud supported jupyter notebook computing environment," Environmental Modelling and Software, , 2019 10.1016/j.envsoft.2018.10.003. 117
R.J. Johnston, T. Ndebele and D.A. Newburn. "Modeling Transaction Costs in Household Adoption of Landscape Conservation Practices." American Journal of Agricultural Economics , 2022 10.1111/ajae.12319
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 Templeton, Laura and Zhang, Ruoyu "Spatial and Temporal Patterns of Nitrogen Mobilization in Residential Lawns" Ecosystems , 2023 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-023-00848-y Citation Details
Thompson, Grant L. and Bray, Natalie and Groffman, Peter M. and Kao-Kniffin, Jenny "Soil microbiomes in lawns reveal land-use legacy impacts on urban landscapes" Oecologia , v.202 , 2023 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-023-05389-8 Citation Details

PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT

Disclaimer

This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.

Lawn ecosystems and residential landscapes are important to the sustainability of large areas of the United States. The development of policies to balance environmental, economic, and equity dimensions of these systems is complicated by spatial and temporal variation in multiple domains. Our coupled hydrologic, biogeochemical and social science studies have focused on the identification of locations or activities that could have a disproportionate influence on environmental services and disservices, i.e., ?hotspots? or ?control points.?  These locations could be the focus of policies directed at lawns and residential landscapes. Results show that there is tremendous variation in both the inherent vulnerability/sensitivity of individual parcels to cause environmental damage, and in the values, knowledge and practices of individual managers. To the extent that hotspots of ecosystem services/disservices are the result of management choices by homeowners, there are multiple approaches to develop policies and programs to improve sustainability outcomes. If however, hotspots are not the result of management choices, but rather arise from the configuration and inherent characteristics of parcels and neighborhoods, efforts to improve sustainable outcomes may involve more intensive and complex interventions such as conversion of lawns to alternative ecosystem types.

More broadly, this research addressed the problem of stormwater management, which is perhaps the second oldest urban environmental problem; i.e., the first roof constructed by humans created the first stormwater impact. Yet efforts to address this problem are complex and often ineffective. For example, an effort to implement a stormwater utility fee in Maryland to protect the highly visible and important Chesapeake Bay raised concerns about a ?rain tax? that influenced the gubernatorial election in Maryland. This project addressed the nitrogen flux associated with stormwater, the fundamental multi-scale coupled natural human system dynamics of stormwater management, and the extent to which measurable nitrogen retention feedbacks influence (or do not influence) human behavior critical to system outcomes.  The results should be relevant to a wide variety of challenging environmental issues. New knowledge and methods facilitate participatory research and management by community groups, professionals, and scientists.  The ability to plan, visualize and evaluate the results of individual property owners and institutions can better connect residents, business owners and institutions as part of environmental restoration planning and development. Results also inform the design of more cost-effective programs to influence residential landscape management in ways that attenuate stormwater runoff and nitrogen export. 

 


Last Modified: 10/26/2022
Modified by: Peter M Groffman

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