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A comparison of soil carbon dynamics in residential yards with and without trees

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Abstract

Residential lawns provide chronosequences to examine influences of home age and aboveground tree biomass (ATB) on soil carbon (C) levels. Soil C dynamics were compared between 44 lawns with trees (LwT) and 23 without trees (PL). At the 0–15 cm depth, LwT had higher mean soil C than PL and an earlier rise in median soil C across home age. Nonparametric quantile regression also showed a steeper rise in the 5th, 50th, and 95th soil C quantiles for LwT. Fitted polynomial regression models indicated that home age and ATB together accounted for 40 % of the soil C variation at the 0–15 cm depth [C = 1.34 + 0.05(Age) + 0.0003(ATB)]. At the 15–30 cm depth, the interaction between home age and ATB explained 33 % of the soil C variation [C = 0.78 + 0.0003(Age*ATB)]; at 30–50 cm, ATB was responsible for 20 % [C = 0.56 + 0.0003(ATB)].

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Acknowledgments

We much appreciate all the technical and/or field assistance from William Avery, Jonathon Bartlett, Kyle Bolton, Nick Gilliland, Robin Governo, Dr. B. Graeme Lockaby, Nick Martin, Matthew McCollough, and Efrem Robbins. Barry G. Dorman and Dr. Juan B. Rodriguez with the National Soil Dynamics Laboratory, Auburn, AL provided excellent technical assistance and all the carbon and nitrogen analyses and for that we are forever grateful. Also, we give a huge “Thank You” to the 2 anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful editorial comments that improved this paper. Partial financial support provided by the Mcintire-Stennis Fund.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, Auburn University, 602 Duncan Drive, Auburn, AL, 36849-5418, USA

    Ann Huyler, Arthur H. Chappelka & Zhaofei Fan

  2. National Soil Dynamics Laboratory, USDA-ARS, 411 S. Donahue Drive, Auburn, AL, 36832, USA

    Stephen A. Prior

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  1. Ann Huyler
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Correspondence to Ann Huyler.

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Huyler, A., Chappelka, A.H., Fan, Z. et al. A comparison of soil carbon dynamics in residential yards with and without trees. Urban Ecosyst 20, 87–96 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-016-0572-y

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