Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Differences in soil chemical properties with distance to roads and age of development in urban areas

  • Published:
Urban Ecosystems Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to characterize variation in soil chemical properties with length of urbanization period and distance to roads. Urban boundaries from 1920’s (old), 1960’s (middle) and 2000’s (new) were identified for three cities in northeast Ohio: Massillon, Wooster and Canton. Within each identified historic boundary, soil samples were collected from two road-side and two interior lawns in one public school site in each city. Thus, there were three urban age and two distance-to-roads classes. Soil particle composition and basic chemical properties including pH, available phosphorus (P), exchangeable potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), cation exchange capacity (CEC), nitrate, total carbon (C), total nitrogen (N), and soil organic matter (SOM) were measured. Two notable spatio-temporal patterns appeared repeatedly in the data set. First, total C, total N and SOM were higher in the soils of old (>50 years) urban sites than of newly developed sites. Similar, but not always significant, trends in soil pH, and exchangeable Ca were also observed. Second, road-side soils had higher pH, Ca, total C and N than interior sites regardless of urban age. These data indicate that key soil chemical properties can vary in predictable ways with urban age and distance-to-roads classes. Such variations in key soil chemical properties may influence or reflect soil biota and biogeochemical processes in urban soils.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Association of Analytical Communities Official Methods of Analysis (2002) Method 990.03. Protein (crude) in Animal Feed Combustion Method (Dumas method). 17th edition

  • Beyer L, Blume HP, Elsner DC, Willnow A (1995) Soil organic-matter composition and microbial activity in urban soils. Sci Total Environ 168(3):267–278

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Beyer L, Kahle P, Kretschmer H, Wu QL (2001) Soil organic matter composition of man-impacted urban sites in North Germany. J Plant Nutr Soil Sci 164(4):359–364

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Boerner REJ, Scherzer AJ, Brinkman JA (1998) Spatial patterns of inorganic N, P availability, and organic C in relation to soil disturbance: a chronosequence analysis. Appl Soil Ecol 7(2):159–177

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carreiro MM, Howe K, Parkhurst DF, Pouyat RV (1999) Variation in quality and decomposability of red oak leaf litter along an urban-rural gradient. Biol Fertil Soils 30(3):258–268

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carreiro MM, Pouyat RV, Tripler C (2009) Nitrogen and carbon cycling in forests along urban-rural gradients in two cities. In: McDonnell MJ, Hahs A, Breuste J (eds) Ecology of cities and towns: a comparative approach. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 308–328

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Combs SM, Nathan MV (1998) Soil organic matter. In: Recommended chemical soil test procedures for the North Central Region. NCR Publication No. 221. Missouri Agricultural Experiment Station, Columbia, MO, USA, pp 53–58

  • Craul PJ (1992) Urban soil in landscape design. Wiley, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • El-Hasan T, Batarseh M, Al-Omari H, Ziadat A, El-Alali A, Al-Naser F, Berdanier BW, Jiries A (2006) The distribution of heavy metals in urban street dusts of Karak city, Jordan. Soil Sediment Contam 15(4):357–365

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ellis EC, Ramankutty N (2008) Putting people in the map: anthropogenic biomes of the world. Front Ecol Environ 6(8):439–447

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gelderman RH, Beegle D (1998) Nitrate-Nitrogen. In: Recommended chemical soil test procedures for the North Central Region. NCR Publication No. 221. Missouri Agricultural Experiment Station. Columbia, MO, USA, pp 17–18

  • Guan DS, Peart MR (2006) Heavy metal concentrations in plants and soils at roadside locations and parks of urban Guangzhou. J Environ Sci (China) 18(3):495–502

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • He Y, Zhang GL (2009) Historical record of black carbon in urban soils and its environmental implications. Environ Pollut 157(10):2684–2688

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • International Standard, ISO 10694 (1995) (E) Soil quality—Determination of organic and total carbon after dry combustion (elementary analysis). International Organization for Standardization. Geneva, Switzerland

  • Jim CY (1998) Physical and chemical properties of a Hong Kong roadside soil in relation to urban tree growth. Urban Ecosyst 2:171–181

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kalnay E, Cai M (2003) Impact of urbanization and land-use change on climate. Nature 423(6939):528–531

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kaye JP, McCulley RL, Burke IC (2005) Carbon fluxes, nitrogen cycling, and soil microbial communities in adjacent urban, native and agricultural ecosystems. Glob Change Biol 11(4):575–587

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kern JS, Johnson MG (1993) Conservation tillage impacts on national soil and atmospheric carbon levels. Soil Sci Soc Am J 57(1):200–210

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kettler TA, Doran JW, Gilbert TL (2001) Simplified method for soil particle-size determination to accompany soil-quality analyses. Soil Sci Soc Am J 65(3):849–852

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kuo S (1996) Phosphorus. In: Methods of soil analysis, Part 3—Chemical methods. Soil Science Society of America, Madison, WI, USA, pp 894–895

  • Lohse KA, Hope D, Sponseller R, Allen JO, Grimm NB (2008) Atmospheric deposition of carbon and nutrients across an arid metropolitan area. Sci Total Environ 402(1):95–105

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lorenz K, Kandeler E (2005) Biochemical characterization of urban soil profiles from Stuttgart, Germany. Soil Biol Biochem 37(7):1373–1385

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lorenz K, Preston CM, Kandeler E (2006) Soil organic matter in urban soils: estimation of elemental carbon by thermal oxidation and characterization of organic matter by solid-state C-13 nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Geoderma 130(3–4):312–323

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Manta DS, Angelone M, Bellanca A, Neri R, Sprovieri M (2002) Heavy metals in urban soils: a case study from the city of Palermo (Sicily), Italy. Sci Total Environ 300(1–3):229–243

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • McDonnell MJ, Pickett STA (1990) Ecosystem structure and function along urban-rural gradients: an unexploited opportunity for ecology. Ecology 71(4):1232–1237

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McDonnell MJ, Pickett STA, Groffman P, Bohlen P, Pouyat RV, Zipperer WC, Parmelee RW, Carreiro MM, Medley K (1997) Ecosystem processes along an urban-to-rural gradient. Urban Ecosyst 1(1):21–36

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oke TR (1973) City size and urban heat island. Atmos Environ 7(8):769–779

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oke TR (1982) The energetic basis of the urban heat-island. Q J R Meteorol Soc 108(455):1–24

    Google Scholar 

  • Ohio Web Library (2007) Sanborn fire insurance maps. Available at http://dmc.ohiolink.edu.proxy.oplin.org/oplinmap.htm. Accessed June 2007

  • Pagotto C, Remy N, Legret M, Le Cloirec P (2001) Heavy metal pollution of road dust and roadside soil near a major rural highway. Environ Technol 22(3):307–319

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pouyat RV, McDonnell MJ, Pickett STA (1995) Soil characteristics of oak stands along an urban-rural land-use gradient. J Environ Qual 24(3):516–526

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Pouyat RV, Groffman P, Yesilonis I, Hernandez L (2002) Soil carbon pools and fluxes in urban ecosystems. Environ Pollut 116(Supple 1):S107–S118

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pouyat RV, Yesilonis ID, Szlavecz K, Csuzdi C, Hornung E, Korsos Z, Russell-Anelli J, Giorgio V (2008) Response of forest soil properties to urbanization gradients in three metropolitan areas. Landsc Ecol 23(10):1187–1203

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pouyat RV, Yesilonis I, Golubiewski N (2009a) A comparison of soil organic carbon stocks between residential turf grass and native soil. Urban Ecosyst 12(1):45–62

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pouyat RV, Carreiro MM, Groffman PM, Zuckerman M (2009b) Investigative approaches to urban biogeochemical cycles: New York metropolitan area and Baltimore as case studies. In: McDonnell MJ, Hahs A, Breuste J (eds) Ecology of cities and towns: a comparative approach. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 329–354

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Qian YL, Follett RF (2002) Assessing soil carbon sequestration in turfgrass systems using long-term soil testing data. Agron J 94(4):930–935

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Quincke JA, Wortmann CS, Mamo M (2007) Occasional tillage of no-till systems: carbon dioxide flux and changes in total and labile soil organic carbon. Agron J 99(4):1158–1168

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Richter DD, Markewitz D, Trumbore SE, Wells CG (1999) Rapid accumulation and turnover of soil carbon in a re-establishing forest. Nature 400(6739):56–58

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Scharenbroch BC, Lloyd JE, Johnson-Maynard JL (2005) Distinguishing urban soils with physical, chemical, and biological properties. Pedobiologia 49(4):283–296

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Shaw P, Reeve N (2008) Influence of a parking area on soils and vegetation in an urban nature reserve. Urban Ecosyst 11(1):107–120

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Soil Survey Staff, Natural Resources Conservation Service, United States Department of Agriculture (2007) Web soil survey. Available online at http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov. Accessed July 2007

  • Ter Braak CJF, Prentice IC (1988) A theory of gradient analysis. Adv Ecol Res 18:271–317

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thomas GW (1996) Soil pH and soil acidity. In: Methods of soil analysis, Part 3—Chemical methods. Soil Science Society of America, Madison, WI, USA, pp 475–490

  • Turer D, Maynard JB, Sansaluone JJ (2001) Heavy metal contamination in soils of urban highways: comparison between runoff and soil concentrations at Cincinnati, Ohio. Water Air Soil Pollut 132:293–314

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • United States Department of Agriculture (2007) Soil texture calculator. Available at http://soils.usda.gov/technical/aids/investigations/texture/. Accessed July 2007

  • United States Environmental Protection Agency (1997) Managing urban Runoff, EPA 841-F-96-004G, Washington, DC.

  • United States Environmental Protection Agency (2004) Pesticide industry sales and usage: 2000 and 2001 market estimates. Office of Pesticide Programs, Washington, D.C

  • Walsh CJ (2000) Urban impacts on the ecology of receiving waters: a framework for assessment, conservation, and restoration. Hydrobiologia 43:107–114

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Warncke D, Brown JR (1998) Potassium and other basic cations. In: Recommended chemical soil test procedures for the North Central Region. NCR Publication No. 221. Missouri Agricultural Experiment Station, Columbia, pp 31–33

  • Zhang MK, Wang MQ, Liu XM, Jiang H, Xu JM (2003) Characterization of soil quality under vegetable production along an urban-rural gradient. Pedosphere 13(2):173–180

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang W, Zhang SC, Yue DP, Wan C, Ye YB, Wang XJ (2008) Characterization and loading estimation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in road runoff from urban regions of Beijing, China. Environ Toxicol Chem 27(1):31–37

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zhu WX, Carreiro MM (1999) Chemoautotrophic nitrification in acidic forest soils along an urban-to-rural transect. Soil Biol Biochem 31(8):1091–1100

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Nancy Baker Cazan at Stark County Educational Service Center for acquiring permissions from pubic schools for soil sampling and providing land-use history of the schools. We also thank Drs. Ruisheng An and Jayakrishnan Saimandir for helping with soil sampling. We thank Dr. Robin A. J. Taylor for his advice on data analysis. Finally, we thank three anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments. This study was funded by the Urban Landscape Ecology Program of the Ohio State University.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Science Graduate Program, Urban Landscape Ecology Program, The Ohio State University, Wooster, OH, USA

    Sun-Jeong Park, Hanbae Yang, Brian B. McSpadden Gardener & Parwinder S. Grewal

  2. Department of Entomology, The Ohio State University, 1680 Madison Avenue, Wooster, OH, 44691-4096, USA

    Sun-Jeong Park, Zhiqiang Cheng, Hanbae Yang, Elizabeth E. Morris, Meaghan Sutherland & Parwinder S. Grewal

  3. School of Environment and Natural Resources, The Ohio State University, Wooster, OH, USA

    Hanbae Yang

  4. Department of Plant Pathology, The Ohio State University, Wooster, OH, USA

    Brian B. McSpadden Gardener

Authors
  1. Sun-Jeong Park
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Zhiqiang Cheng
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Hanbae Yang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Elizabeth E. Morris
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Meaghan Sutherland
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Brian B. McSpadden Gardener
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Parwinder S. Grewal
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Parwinder S. Grewal.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Park, SJ., Cheng, Z., Yang, H. et al. Differences in soil chemical properties with distance to roads and age of development in urban areas. Urban Ecosyst 13, 483–497 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-010-0130-y

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-010-0130-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation