Functional-ecological assessment of organic C dynamics in soils designed for sustainable lawn ecosystems in Moscow conditions
Andrey V. Stepanov, Ivan I. Vasenev & Anna S. Shchepeleva
Russian Timiryazev State Agrarian University, Moscow, Russia
Sustainably functioning urban lawns are vitally important component of the modern urban ecosystem. In the biggest European megalopolis Moscow its urban lawn soils’ environmental functions are especially important in conditions of high anthropogenic impacts. According to Moscow governmental regulation of urban lawn soil quality the specialized private companies need renew the lawn topsoil after their organic C content decreases lower acceptable values. It means not only extra costs but also the huge resource of annual CO2 emission comparable with the transport one.
The 3-year (2012 - 2015) functional-ecological monitoring of soil CO2 emission and topsoil organic C dynamics in the field container experiment with different composition and construction of the man-made lawn topsoil showed the best level of the integrated environmental functioning in case of versions with 10-cm and 5-cm horizons with peat and sand mixtures. Soil atmosphere-regulation, biota-support and water-regulation environmental functions are considering as the principal ones effected by organic-mineral interactions in the lawn topsoil and subsoil.
Obtained results became the basics for new field experiment designed in the Environmental Station of the Russian Timiryazev State Agrarian University with 8 monitoring plots 2 by 5 meters and 10-cm topsoil created from mineral sandy or loam materials compounded with peat moss or lowland peat. Transfer of the already verified monitoring protocol from the container experiment to the field one with plot areas comparative to the real lawns and with additional loam versions of the lawn soil mineral component will give us possibilities to develop experimentally based recommendations for sustainable lawn soil design taking into attention soil environmental functions including CO2 emission regulation one.