NDLI: Naturalization as a strategy for improving soil physical characteristics in a forested urban park

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Millward, Andrew A. Paudel, Kamal Briggs, Suzanne E.
Copyright Year	2011
Abstract	Ensuring good soil quality is essential to promoting plant growth in urban parks and building ecological resilience into a cityscape. Periodically used to restore a degraded urban ecosystem, parkland naturalization is a management approach designed to facilitate the return of an area to a natural state by largely discontinuing maintenance activities and restricting public access. This study investigates the potential for parkland naturalization to improve soil quality in a forested portion of Kew Gardens Park, Toronto, Canada by comparing soil physical properties in three six-year-old naturalization enclosures with those found in adjacent managed parkland. Soil texture, compaction, bulk density, and surface water infiltration rate were measured at 104 sample sites, while ordinary kriging was used to interpolate two-dimensional prediction surfaces representative of soil properties. Sand and loamy sand were the dominant soil texture classes found across the study site. Highly compacted soil (>2,000 kPa) and soil with a bulk density >1.8 Mg/m$^{3}$ (values sufficiently elevated to restrict tree root growth and respiration and impair soil water infiltration) were spatially correlated with high pedestrian traffic areas and corridors used by festival and park maintenance vehicles. In contrast, compaction and bulk density measurements in the naturalized areas were at or below thresholds known to impair root function ( $$ {{\overline{X}}} $$ at 10 and 30 cm depth: 849 and 1,311 kPa, 1.15 and 1.51 Mg/m$^{3}$, respectively). Similarly, water infiltration rates were rapid $$ \left( {{{\overline{X}}} = {47}0{\hbox{mm}}/{\hbox{hr}}} \right) $$ within the naturalization enclosures but retarded to the point of surface pooling in parkland subjected to regular public use. In the absence of quantitative baseline data, our use of spatial analysis demonstrates that parkland naturalization is a good management practice for restoration of soil physical characteristics. While our results show improvements to soil properties in a relatively short period of time, variability in the soil response rate to parkland naturalization will be dependent upon disturbance history as well as on soil and climate type.
Starting Page	261
Ending Page	278
Page Count	18
File Format	PDF
ISSN	10838155
Journal	Urban Ecosystems
Volume Number	14
Issue Number	2
e-ISSN	15731642
Language	English
Publisher	Springer US
Publisher Date	2011-01-11
Publisher Place	Boston
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Parkland naturalization Disturbance Compaction Bulk density Water infiltration Ordinary kriging Urban Ecology Ecology Environmental Management Nature Conservation
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Ecology Urban Studies

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

Impact of soil compaction on soil biodiversity – does it matter in urban context?

Altered resources, disturbance, and heterogeneity: A framework for comparing urban and non-urban soils

A microcosm study of the common night crawler earthworm (Lumbricus terrestris) and physical, chemical and biological properties of a designed urban soil

Franklin Park: 150 years of changing design, disturbance, and impact on tree growth

A cloud-based spatial-temporal inventory for sustainable urban soil management

Water infiltration in urban soils and its effects on the quantity and quality of runoff

Soil compaction by grazing livestock in silvopastures as evidenced by changes in soil physical properties

Potential of Sphagnum peat for improving soil organic matter, water holding capacity, bulk density and potato yield in a sandy soil

Effects of area size, heterogeneity, isolation, and disturbances on urban park avifauna in a highly populated tropical city

Naturalization as a strategy for improving soil physical characteristics in a forested urban park

Similar Documents

Impact of soil compaction on soil biodiversity – does it matter in urban context?

Altered resources, disturbance, and heterogeneity: A framework for comparing urban and non-urban soils

A microcosm study of the common night crawler earthworm (Lumbricus terrestris) and physical, chemical and biological properties of a designed urban soil

Franklin Park: 150 years of changing design, disturbance, and impact on tree growth

A cloud-based spatial-temporal inventory for sustainable urban soil management

Water infiltration in urban soils and its effects on the quantity and quality of runoff

Soil compaction by grazing livestock in silvopastures as evidenced by changes in soil physical properties

Potential of Sphagnum peat for improving soil organic matter, water holding capacity, bulk density and potato yield in a sandy soil

Effects of area size, heterogeneity, isolation, and disturbances on urban park avifauna in a highly populated tropical city

Naturalization as a strategy for improving soil physical characteristics in a forested urban park