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CUERE Seminar:Dr. Katalin Szlavecz

Location

Technology Research Center (TRC) : 206

Date & Time

April 14, 2017, 2:00 pm3:00 pm

Description

UMBC 

Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education

Spring 2017 Seminar Series

presents



Dr. Katalin Szlavecz
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
The Johns Hopkins University



“The soil ecosystem in urban vacant lots”    



Friday, April 14, 2017 

2:00 PM

TRC 206, UMBC


Abstract
The approximately 14,000 vacant lots in Baltimore City are an important feature of the urban landscape. Given their potential for beneficial reuse, many stand to provide important health and urban ecological benefits to city residents. Vacant lots are unpaved and thus their soils have a great potential to provide an array of ecosystem services, such as reducing runoff, supporting vegetation and sequestering carbon. To test how plant biodiversity mediates such ecosystem services, the Baltimore Wildflower Project was initiated in 2013. Keeping species richness constant, functional and phylogenetic diversity of herbaceous vegetation was manipulated on 25 vacant lots. We explored the connection between above- and belowground biodiversity by assessing community structure of the soil micro- and macrofauna beneath the plant communities. Additionally, we collected data on site history and analyzed the soil physical and chemical properties. In general, parcel-to-parcel variability of both biotic and abiotic data was high. Species composition was typical of an early successional community. Soil organic matter, pH, nutrient and metal contents varied among parcels, however proximity mattered. Parcels closer together were more similar than far apart in abiotic properties, such as Na, K, Ca, Si, and Zn concentrations, indicating similar age or management. After one year of plant community establishment, these abiotic factors as well as location and age of vacant lots might be more important to soil fauna recovery, than vegetation structure. Future monitoring will reveal if linkages between above- and belowground communities change over time.

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Parking policy

Parking passes for off-campus guests in the TRC lot are required at the cost of $4.00 per car.  Parking passes may be picked up and paid for (cash only) before seminar by stopping by the CUERE office in TRC 102 /105 and seeing a staff member.  Please contact us at 410-455-1763 with any questions regarding logistics.  

View our web site at  http://cuere.umbc.edu