Impact of urbanization on soil loss: a case study from sod production
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Impact of urbanization on soil loss: a case study from sod production Mehmet Parlak & Timuçin Everest & Sabrina J. Ruis & Humberto Blanco
Received: 26 June 2020 / Accepted: 11 August 2020 # Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract The rapidly increasing population of urban centers leads to the increasing need for greenspaces. Sodding of turfgrass provides instant greenspace, but it removes soil from sod farms. The extent of such removal has not been widely quantified. The amount quantity of soil and organic matter lost with sod harvest and the associated cost of nutrients lost from six sod farms in the Marmara region of Turkey were determined. Soil loss ranged from 166 to 243 Mg ha−1 year−1, while the associated organic matter loss ranged from 1 to 6 Mg ha−1 year−1. The amount of soil loss increased with increases in gravimetric water, clay, and silt contents, and duration under sod harvest, while it decreased with an increase in sand content. Annual nutrient lost ranged from 117 to 449 kg ha−1 for N, from 2 to 18 kg ha−1 for P2O5, and from 21 to 175 kg ha−1 for K2O. Replacing the nutrient lost would cost about $134 ha−1 year−1 for sandy soils and $444 ha−1 year−1 for fine-textured soils. Soil lost with sod harvest was 134 times higher than that from agricultural lands by erosion in the region, although the area under sod production is much smaller than that under croplands. Similarly, organic matter loss was 4 to 5 times higher than the accumulation rate under M. Parlak (*) : T. Everest Lapseki Vocational School, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, 17800 Çanakkale, Turkey e-mail: [email protected] S. J. Ruis : H. Blanco Department of Agronomy and Horticulture, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68583-0915, USA
established turfgrass in golf courses and lawns in locations with similar climate. Overall, sod harvesting results in significant and costly soil, organic matter, and nutrient loss, which, although small in area, can be an important component of total soil erosion. Keywords Urbanization . Soil loss . Sod production . Organic matter loss . Soil degradation
Introduction The human population has grown rapidly since the industrial revolution with increasing numbers of people gravitating toward urban centers. In the early 1800s, only about 2% of the human population lived in urban enivronments (UN-Habitat 2001), but by 2018, about 55% lived in urban environments, a number that is expected to reach 68% by 2050 (UNDESA 2018). Urbanization often requires the transport of water, fuel, food, and raw materials from outside the urban center (Chen 2007), causing watershed problems, heat islands, and other changes in climatic and biogeochemical cycles (Shen et al. 2007). It can also alter the human connection to nature (Van den Berg et al. 2007), which can negatively impact mental, emotional, and physical well-being (Van den Berg et al. 2016; Burls 2007). The World Health Organization recommends at least 9 m2 capita−1 of greenspace to improve the human connection to nature (Deloya 1993). To achieve this n
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