CNH-L: Multi-Scale Coupled Natural-Human System Dynamics of Nitrogen in Residential Landscapes

从城市和郊区景观径流早已知道有一个显着的影响，接受这种排放的河流水质。这方面的一个特别令人关切的问题是，在草坪上使用肥料会输出过量的硝酸盐，这会促进藻类或微生物在接收沃茨的生长。最近的研究表明，这种硝酸盐出口量低于预期，但原因尚不清楚。该项目将调查可能调节草坪氮的保留和排放的自然过程，以及影响业主关于草坪管理水平的决定的社会力量。结果将被纳入一个模型，该模型将确定径流中高硝酸盐的位置和事件，以确定人类决策和自然过程如何共同控制这些浓度。结论将适用于全国各地的各种城市和郊区的位置，该项目将有直接的好处，切萨皮克湾的环境健康的管理。该项目模拟了住宅景观中氮的多尺度耦合系统动力学，以确定生态地球化学，水文和人类行为过程如何相互作用，以控制住宅生态系统和景观的氮出口。这些模型将协调来自住户调查、现有数据和地理信息系统分析的信息，以评估草坪管理和水文敏感性的相互关联的空间格局。首要的假设是，大规模的社会和制度的影响往往会导致房主草坪护理的做法与房主的喜好，但显着的变化，行为可以通过系统的激励措施。将建立对土地利用历史（森林与农业）、场地管理（肥料投入）和年龄不同的地块的实地研究，以检验草坪土壤剖面中氮固存极限的假设。将使用生态水文模型分析地理、地球化学和社会科学数据，以在流域尺度上对草坪肥料出口的潜在热点进行空间分析。然后，可以严格评估替代政策和房主做法对土地管理和氮出口的影响。

Runoff from urban and suburban landscapes has long been known to have a significant effect upon the water quality of streams that receive this discharge. A particular concern in this area is the export of excess nitrate from the use of fertilizers on lawns, which can promote algal or microbial growth in receiving waters. Recent research has indicated that such nitrate export is less than expected, but the reasons for this are unclear. This project will investigate both the natural processes that may regulate the retention and discharge of nitrogen from lawns, as well as the sociological forces that influence the decisions of homeowners concerning the level of lawn management. The results will be incorporated into a model that will identify the locations and episodes of high nitrate in runoff in order to determine how human decisions and natural processes work together to control these concentrations. The conclusions will be applicable to a wide variety of urban and suburban locations across the country and the project will have direct benefit to the management of the environmental health of Chesapeake Bay. This project models multi-scale, coupled-system dynamics of nitrogen in residential landscapes to determine how biogeochemical, hydrologic, and human behavioral processes interact to control nitrogen exports from residential ecosystems and landscapes. These models will coordinate information from household surveys, existing data, and geographic information system analyses to evaluate interconnected spatial patterns of lawn management and hydrologic sensitivity. The overarching hypothesis is that large-scale social and institutional influences often induce homeowner lawn-care practices contrary to homeowner preferences, but that significant changes in behavior can be motivated via systematic incentives. Field studies on plots varying in land use history (forest versus agriculture), site management (fertilizer input) and age will be established to test hypotheses about the limits of nitrogen sequestration in lawn soil profiles. Geographic, biogeochemical, and social-science data will be analyzed using ecohydrological models to produce spatial analyses of potential hotspots of lawn fertilizer export at the watershed scale. The effect of alternative policies and homeowner practices on land management and nitrogen exports can then be evaluated rigorously.