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Kuronuma T, Masuda S, Mito T, Watanabe H. Inclusive greenhouse gas budget assessment in turfs: From turf production to disposal of grass clippings. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT 2023; 346:118919. [PMID: 37729836 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.118919] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/11/2023] [Revised: 08/19/2023] [Accepted: 08/29/2023] [Indexed: 09/22/2023]
Abstract
Globally, greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction is a serious concern. To evaluate whether turfs serve as a GHG sink or source, GHG budget assessments for life cycle are required. However, previous studies have only focused on the use of turfs. To bridge these gaps in literature, this study investigated GHG (CO2, N2O, and CH4) emissions from the disposal of grass clippings and soil GHG fluxes in turfs. Additionally, GHG budgets in the turf production phase were assessed. Finally, inclusive GHG budgets from turf production to disposal of grass clippings for four turf uses (soccer stadium, golf course, office, and urban park) were assessed. Grass clippings were disposed in three forms (incineration, leaving as-is, and biochar). We found that GHG emissions from incineration and leaving 1 t-fresh weight (FW) of grass clippings were 0.711 and 0.207 t-CO2e, respectively. Contrastingly, the GHG emissions from the biochar yield from 1 t-FW of grass clippings were -0.200 t-CO2e. Further, annual soil GHG fluxes in newly established Zoysia and Kentucky bluegrass turfs were calculated at 0.067 and 0.040 tCO2e・ha-1・yr-1, respectively. As the turf grass in production fields sequester large amounts of CO2, GHG budgets in turf production phase were estimated at approximately -20 t-CO2e・ha-1・yr-1. Inclusive GHG budget assessment from turf production to disposal of grass clippings showed that turfs only in the urban parks served as a GHG sink and this ability was comparable to CO2 sequestration in forests. To enhance the ability of GHG sinks and to promote changes from a GHG source to GHG sink, our study revealed the importance of reduction of GHG emissions from energy and resource uses (especially fertilizers and gasoline) for turf management.
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Affiliation(s)
- Takanori Kuronuma
- Center for Environment, Health and Field Sciences, Chiba University, 6-2-1 Kashiwa-no-ha, Kashiwa-city, Chiba, 277-0882, Japan.
| | - Shohei Masuda
- Advanced Energy Research & Development Division, Innovative Research Excellence, Power Unit & Energy, Honda R&D Co., Ltd., 4630 Shimotakanezawa, Haga-machi, Hagagun, Tochigi, 321-3393, Japan
| | - Takuya Mito
- Advanced Energy Research & Development Division, Innovative Research Excellence, Power Unit & Energy, Honda R&D Co., Ltd., 4630 Shimotakanezawa, Haga-machi, Hagagun, Tochigi, 321-3393, Japan
| | - Hitoshi Watanabe
- Center for Environment, Health and Field Sciences, Chiba University, 6-2-1 Kashiwa-no-ha, Kashiwa-city, Chiba, 277-0882, Japan
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Phillips CL, Wang R, Mattox C, Trammell TLE, Young J, Kowalewski A. High soil carbon sequestration rates persist several decades in turfgrass systems: A meta-analysis. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2023; 858:159974. [PMID: 36347293 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.159974] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2022] [Revised: 10/19/2022] [Accepted: 11/01/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Managed turfgrass is a common component of urban landscapes that is expanding under current land use trends. Previous studies have reported high rates of soil carbon sequestration in turfgrass, but no systematic review has summarized these rates nor evaluated how they change as turfgrass ages. Here we conducted a meta-analysis of soil carbon sequestration rates from 63 studies globally, comprised mostly of C3 grass species in the U.S., including 24 chronosequence studies that evaluated carbon changes over 75 years or longer. We showed that turfgrass established within the last ten years had a positive mean soil C sequestration rate of 5.3 Mg CO2 ha-1 yr-1 (95% CI = 3.7-6.2), which is higher than rates reported for several soil conservation practices. Areas converted to turfgrass from forests were an exception, sometimes lost soil carbon, and had a cross-study mean sequestration rate that did not differ from 0. In some locations, soil C accumulated linearly with turfgrass age over several decades, but the major trend was for soil C accumulation rates to decline through time, reaching a cross-study mean sequestration rate that was not different from 0 at 50 years. We show that fitting soil C timeseries with a mechanistically derived function rather than purely empirical functions did not alter these conclusions, nor did employing equivalent soil mass versus fixed-depth carbon stock accounting. We conducted a partial greenhouse gas budget that estimated emissions from mowing, N-fertilizer production, and soil N2O emissions. When N fertilizer was applied, average maintenance emissions offset 32% of C sequestration in recently established turfgrass. Potential emission removals by turfgrass can be maximized with reduced-input management. Management decisions that avoid losing accrued soil C-both when turfgrass is first established and when it is eventually replaced with other land-uses-will also help maximize turfgrass C sequestration potential.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claire L Phillips
- USDA-Agricultural Research Service, Northwest Sustainable Agroecosystems Research Unit, P.O. Box 64621, Pullman, WA 99164, United States of America.
| | - Ruying Wang
- Department of Horticulture, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, United States of America
| | - Clint Mattox
- Department of Horticulture, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, United States of America
| | - Tara L E Trammell
- Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, United States of America
| | - Joseph Young
- Department of Plant and Soil Science, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409, United States of America
| | - Alec Kowalewski
- Department of Horticulture, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, United States of America
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Wang R, Mattox CM, Phillips CL, Kowalewski AR. Carbon Sequestration in Turfgrass–Soil Systems. PLANTS 2022; 11:plants11192478. [PMID: 36235344 PMCID: PMC9571228 DOI: 10.3390/plants11192478] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2022] [Revised: 08/31/2022] [Accepted: 09/10/2022] [Indexed: 12/04/2022]
Abstract
Plants are key components of the terrestrial ecosystem carbon cycle. Atmospheric CO2 is assimilated through photosynthesis and stored in plant biomass and in the soil. The use of turfgrass is expanding due to the increasing human population and urbanization. In this review, we summarize recent carbon sequestration research in turfgrass and compare turfgrass systems to other plant systems. The soil organic carbon (SOC) stored in turfgrass systems is comparable to that in other natural and agricultural systems. Turfgrass systems are generally carbon-neutral or carbon sinks, with the exception of intensively managed areas, such as golf course greens and athletic fields. Turfgrass used in other areas, such as golf course fairways and roughs, parks, and home lawns, has the potential to contribute to carbon sequestration if proper management practices are implemented. High management inputs can increase the biomass productivity of turfgrass but do not guarantee higher SOC compared to low management inputs. Additionally, choosing the appropriate turfgrass species that are well adapted to the local climate and tolerant to stresses can maximize CO2 assimilation and biomass productivity, although other factors, such as soil respiration, can considerably affect SOC. Future research is needed to document the complete carbon footprint, as well as to identify best management practices and appropriate turfgrass species to enhance carbon sequestration in turfgrass systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ruying Wang
- Department of Horticulture, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA
- Correspondence:
| | - Clint M. Mattox
- Department of Horticulture, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA
| | - Claire L. Phillips
- USDA-ARS, Northwest Sustainable Agroecosystems Research Unit, Pullman, WA 99164, USA
| | - Alec R. Kowalewski
- Department of Horticulture, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA
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Kotze DJ, Ghosh S, Hui N, Jumpponen A, Lee BPYH, Lu C, Lum S, Pouyat R, Szlavecz K, Wardle DA, Yesilonis I, Zheng B, Setälä H. Urbanization minimizes the effects of plant traits on soil provisioned ecosystem services across climatic regions. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2021; 27:4139-4153. [PMID: 34021965 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15717] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/22/2021] [Accepted: 04/19/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
An increasingly urbanized world is one of the most prominent examples of global environmental change. Across the globe, urban parks are designed and managed in a similar way, resulting in visually pleasing expansions of lawn interspersed with individually planted trees of varying appearances and functional traits. These large urban greenspaces have the capacity to provide various ecosystem services, including those associated with soil physicochemical properties. Our aim was to explore whether soil properties in urban parks diverge underneath vegetation producing labile or recalcitrant litter, and whether the impact is affected by climatic zone (from a boreal to temperate to tropical city). We also compared these properties to those in (semi)natural forests outside the cities to assess the influence of urbanization on plant-trait effects. We showed that vegetation type affected percentage soil organic matter (OM), total carbon (C) and total nitrogen (N), but inconsistently across climatic zones. Plant-trait effects were particularly weak in old parks in the boreal and temperate zones, whereas in young parks in these zones, soils underneath the two tree types accumulated significantly more OM, C and N compared to lawns. Within climatic zones, anthropogenic drivers dominated natural ones, with consistently lower values of organic-matter-related soil properties under trees producing labile or recalcitrant litter in parks compared to forests. The dominating effect of urbanization is also reflected in its ability to homogenize soil properties in parks across the three cities, especially in lawn soils and soils under trees irrespective of functional trait. Our study demonstrates that soil functions that relate to carbon and nitrogen dynamics-even in old urban greenspaces where plant-soil interactions have a long history-clearly diverged from those in natural ecosystems, implying a long-lasting influence of anthropogenic drivers on soil ecosystem services.
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Affiliation(s)
- D Johan Kotze
- Ecosystems and Environment Research Programme, Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, Lahti, Finland
| | - Subhadip Ghosh
- Centre for Urban Greenery and Ecology, National Parks Board, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Nan Hui
- Key Laboratory of Urban Agriculture, School of Agriculture and Biology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
| | - Ari Jumpponen
- Division of Biology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, NY, USA
| | - Benjamin P Y-H Lee
- Wildlife Management Division, National Parks Board, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Changyi Lu
- Ecosystems and Environment Research Programme, Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, Lahti, Finland
| | - Shawn Lum
- Asian School of the Environment, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Richard Pouyat
- Emeritus USDA Forest Service, NRS, Affiliate Faculty Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA
| | - Katalin Szlavecz
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - David A Wardle
- Asian School of the Environment, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Ian Yesilonis
- USDA Forest Service, Baltimore Field Station, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Bangxiao Zheng
- Ecosystems and Environment Research Programme, Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, Lahti, Finland
| | - Heikki Setälä
- Ecosystems and Environment Research Programme, Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, Lahti, Finland
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Velasco E. Impact of Singapore's COVID-19 confinement on atmospheric CO 2 fluxes at neighborhood scale. URBAN CLIMATE 2021; 37:100822. [PMID: 33777687 PMCID: PMC7981201 DOI: 10.1016/j.uclim.2021.100822] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/22/2020] [Revised: 12/02/2020] [Accepted: 03/09/2021] [Indexed: 06/01/2023]
Abstract
Singapore entered a two-month partial lockdown in April 2020 to curb the spread of COVID-19. The imposed measures in addition to contain the virus spread, cut the emissions of greenhouse gases as many economic activities stopped across the city. The advice of stay-at-home changed the pattern of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions within the community. To examine how CO2 emissions responded to the COVID-19 measures at neighborhood scale, anonymized mobility data released by Google and Apple, and traffic congestion information from TomTom were used to track daily and diurnal changes in emissions related to driving, cooking and metabolic breathing in a residential neighborhood of Singapore, in which the anthropogenic and biogenic fluxes of CO2 have been widely characterized. During the lockdown, traffic emissions dropped 41%, but emissions from cooking and metabolic breathing increased 21% and 20%, respectively. The uptake of CO2 by vegetation was not able to offset these emissions, and after adding the biogenic contribution from soil and plants, a net reduction of 24% was found. During the following six months the city got its pace back, with the rate of CO2 emissions reaching similar or slightly higher levels than those predicted before the pandemic crisis. Unfortunately, the stark drop in emissions was just a temporary relief, which reduced only 3.5% the annual CO2 flux over the studied neighborhood.
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