Impact of Residential Prairie Gardens on the Physical Properties of Urban Soil in Madison, Wisconsin

Journal of Environmental Quality
Marie R JohnstonJun Zhu

Abstract

Prairie gardens have become a common addition to residential communities in the midwestern United States because prairie vegetation is native to the region, requires fewer resources to maintain than turfgrass, and has been promoted to help remediate urban soil. Although prairie systems typically have deeper and more diverse root systems than traditional turfgrass, no one has tested the effect of this vegetation type on the physical properties of urban soil. We hypothesized that residential prairie gardens would yield lower soil bulk density (BD), lower penetration resistance (PR), greater soil organic matter (SOM), and greater saturated hydraulic conductivity () compared with turfgrass lawns. To test this hypothesis, we examined 12 residential properties in Madison, WI, where homeowners had established a prairie garden within their turfgrass lawn. Despite a consistent trend in the difference between vegetation types, no significant main effects were found (i.e., a difference between vegetation types when averaged over depth) for any of the four soil properties measured in this study. Differences were found with depth and depended on a significant interaction with vegetation type. At the surface depth (0-0.15 m), soil beneath pr...Continue Reading

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Citations

Mar 7, 2018·Ecological Applications : a Publication of the Ecological Society of America·Carly Ziter, Monica G Turner
Feb 2, 2016·Journal of Environmental Quality·Kuldip Kumar, Lakhwinder S Hundal

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