Topic
Lawn
About: Lawn is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2496 publications have been published within this topic receiving 19521 citations.
Papers published on a yearly basis
1 / 3
Papers
TL;DR: The results indicate that well-watered and fertilized turf grasses act as a carbon sink, suggesting that outdoor water conservation practices such as xeriscaping and irrigation with recycled waste-water may need to be extended as many municipalities continue to face increasing pressures on freshwater.
Abstract: Turf grasses are ubiquitous in the urban landscape of the United States and are often associated with various types of environmental impacts, especially on water resources, yet there have been limited efforts to quantify their total surface and ecosystem functioning, such as their total impact on the continental water budget and potential net ecosystem exchange (NEE). In this study, relating turf grass area to an estimate of fractional impervious surface area, it was calculated that potentially 163,800 km2 (± 35,850 km2) of land are cultivated with turf grasses in the continental United States, an area three times larger than that of any irrigated crop. Using the Biome-BGC ecosystem process model, the growth of warm-season and cool-season turf grasses was modeled at a number of sites across the 48 conterminous states under different management scenarios, simulating potential carbon and water fluxes as if the entire turf surface was to be managed like a well-maintained lawn. The results indicate that well-watered and fertilized turf grasses act as a carbon sink. The potential NEE that could derive from the total surface potentially under turf (up to 17 Tg C/yr with the simulated scenarios) would require up to 695 to 900 liters of water per person per day, depending on the modeled water irrigation practices, suggesting that outdoor water conservation practices such as xeriscaping and irrigation with recycled waste-water may need to be extended as many municipalities continue to face increasing pressures on freshwater.
723 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe a climatic analysis of landscape strategies for outdoor cooling in a hot-arid region, considering the efficiency of water use, using different combinations of trees, lawn, and an overhead shade mesh.
502 citations
TL;DR: The authors explored the effect of burning on grazing activity, and the persistence of grazed patches, in a landscape-level experiment in a South African savanna, and showed that fire history was an important predictor of grazing-lawn distributions.
Abstract: The effects of fire–grazing interactions on grass communities are difficult to identify because fire and grazing influence each other on a landscape scale. Persistent heavy grazing can prevent the spread of fire by breaking up the grass layer. In contrast, frequent burning might inhibit the persistence of grazed patches by attracting grazers to the post-burn green flush. We explored the effect of burning on grazing activity, and the persistence of grazed patches, in a landscape-level experiment in a South African savanna.
We created 17 grazed patches by mowing grass in a 20 m diameter plot, with an adjacent un-mown control. We used dung counts as a measure of grazer visitation, and grass height as a measure of grazing intensity, at each of the sites over a year. Nearly all mowing treatments resulted in a rapid increase in grazing activity relative to controls (on average, 4–6 times more dung was found on mown sites). Subsequent fates of the grazed patches depended on their location with respect to fire. Burned areas drew animals off nearby unburned grazed patches, which then recovered lost biomass. Patches >1.5 km from burns remained grazed short. Frequent large fires might prevent areas of heavy grazing from persisting in the landscape, and thus limit the spread of grazing-adapted grasses.
Spatial information on fire frequencies in the park was used to explore the influence that the “magnet effect” of fire can have on grass communities. We mapped the distribution of tall, bunch grasslands and grazing-lawn grasslands using a 1999 Landsat TM satellite image. The extent of grazing lawns was directly related to fire return interval. Areas with a fire return of <4 years had less lawn grass than would be expected from the proportions of lawn grass in the park. A logistic regression analysis, which used various environmental variables known to influence grazing, showed fire history to be an important predictor of grazing-lawn distributions.
This work shows that, by influencing where, when, and for how long animals graze a patch, fire can influence the competitive balance between grazing-tolerant, and grazing-intolerant grass species and affect their distributions in the landscape. We discuss the implications of this research for the management of natural grazing systems and rangelands.
473 citations
Book•
1 Jan 2007
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explain why people choose to use the lawn as an expression of American culture and why the lawn people choose it over other alternatives, such as replacing it with artificial grass.
Abstract: 1 : Explaining Lawn People 2 : Is the Lawn an Expression of American Culture? 3 : Does the Lawn Necessarily Require Inputs? 4 : Are Lawn Inputs a Hazzard? 5 : Does the Industry Meet or Produce Demand? 6 : Do Lawn People Choose Lawns? 7 : Can Lawn People Choose Alternatives? 8 : Becoming Turfgrass Subjects
354 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated the role of lawns in urban sprawl and found that lawns occupied a significant proportion of total land cover (∼23%) and continued to grow as a relative proportion of lot size.
314 citations
Related Topics (5)
Performance Metrics
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 73 |
| 2024 | 104 |
| 2023 | 173 |
| 2022 | 225 |
| 2021 | 60 |
| 2020 | 86 |