DOI: 10.5061/dryad.cnp5hqcff
title: Residential lawn lysimeter nutrient leaching data

description: Residential lawn management often includes fertilizer application to
 encourage healthy plant growth and support the aesthetic preferences of
 homeowners and communities. These inputs may negatively impact the
 environment by increasing nutrient export to aquatic ecosystems via
 surface runoff or leaching through soil into groundwater. Fertilizer
 management and nutrient export are of particular concern in karst areas
 like North-Central Florida, where the underlying karst geology leads to
 rapid, direct connections between surface and groundwater ecosystems. We
 quantified nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) leaching from residential
 landscapes in North-Central Florida. We investigated nutrient leaching
 from landscapes spanning a real estate gradient and across different
 fertility treatments (no N fertilizer, synthetic mineral fertilizer,
 biosolids-based organic mineral fertilizer, compost topdressing, and
 natural areas). We measured leachate from these landscapes weekly for one
 year. All residential landscapes, including control yards that received no
 N fertilizer, leached &gt;10x more nitrate than natural areas, and
 landscapes treated with synthetic fertilizer exhibited an &gt;80x
 increase in nitrate leaching. Fertilizer treatments also appeared to alter
 the N leaching composition, with a greater proportion of total dissolved N
 leaching coming from nitrate in fertilized treatments (synthetic, organic)
 compared to natural, control, or compost-treated landscapes. These results
 show that landscape management and human actions are important drivers of
 nutrient leaching in residential landscapes. While all residential lawns
 leached more N than natural areas, less leaching was associated with
 certain management approaches. When implemented at larger scales, these
 approaches may reduce the likelihood of negative impacts of residential
 landscapes on regional water quality.
description: # Residential lawn lysimeter nutrient leaching data
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.cnp5hqcff](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.cnp5hqcff) ## Description of the data and file structure Groundwater leachate samples were collected from lysimeters installed in residential and natural areas in Alachua County, FL, USA. Residential landscapes were treated with different fertilizer treatments as described in the Reisinger et al. manuscript accepted in the Journal of Environmental Quality (DOI: 101002/jeq2.20657). Samples were collected from lysimeters weekly and analyzed for total leachate volume and various forms of nitrogen and phosphorus. Samples were then analyzed to test for the effects of treatment and time on the continuous and cumulative nutrient-leaching loads. We also collected soil chemistry data and property value data (from Zillow.com) as potential predictors of nutrient leaching. The only data processing that has occurred was the removal of one singular outlying data point exhibiting exceedingly high ammonium concentrations for our leachate data. ### Files and variables #### File: ResidentialLawnLeachingDrivers.csv **Description:** Ancillary variables are included as potential drivers of nutrient leaching. These data were used for the correlation analysis that made up Table 1 in the Reisinger et al. manuscript accepted in the Journal of Environmental Quality (DOI: 10.1002/jeq2.20657). ##### Variables * site: Unique identifier for the study site. This unique ID is consistent with our other dataset describing nutrient leaching. * landscape: Character string describing the type of landscape represented for each row. Options include bed (mulched bed landscape), lawn (turfgrass lawn landscape), or natural (natural area landscape). * trt: Character string describing the fertilizer treatment of each row. Options include bed (mulched bed landscape), comp (compost topdressing treatment), cont (control, no N fertilizer treatment), fert (synthetic mineral fertilizer treatment), nat (natural landscape treatment), and org (organic mineral fertilizer treatment. * BD: Bulk Density; units: g cm-3 * SOM: Soil organic matter content; units: % * NH4: Soil ammonium concentration; units: mg kg-1 * NOX: Soil nitrate + nitrite concentration; units: mg kg-1 * P: Soil total phosphorus; units: mg kg-1 * PH: Soil pH; units: standard units * TN: Soil total nitrogen; units: mg kg-1 * VALUE: Total property value; units: $; Cells with NAs indicate that this variable is not relevant. Specifically, natural areas/conservation areas are not listed on property value websites. * SIZE: Total property area; units: m2; Cells with NAs indicate that this variable is not relevant. Specifically, natural areas/conservation areas are not listed on property value websites. * PRICE: Relative property value, calculated as the quotient of VALUE and SIZE; units: $ m-2; Cells with NAs indicate that this variable is not relevant. Specifically, natural areas/conservation areas are not listed on property value websites. * AGE: Property age at the time of sampling; units: years; Cells with NAs indicate that this variable is not relevant. Specifically, natural areas/conservation areas are not listed on property value websites. #### File: ResidentialLawnNutrientLeachingData.csv **Description:** Raw data representing the leachate volume and nutrient concentration of every sampling event from every lysimeter during the period of record described in the Reisinger et al. manuscript accepted by the Journal of Environmental Quality (DOI: 10.1002/jeq2.20657). ##### Variables * site: Unique identifier for the study site. This unique ID is consistent with our other dataset describing nutrient leaching. * landscape: Character string describing the type of landscape represented for each row. Options include bed (mulched bed landscape), lawn (turfgrass lawn landscape), or natural (natural area landscape). * trt: Character string describing the fertilizer treatment of each row. Options include bed (mulched bed landscape), comp (compost topdressing treatment), cont (control, no N fertilizer treatment), fert (synthetic mineral fertilizer treatment), nat (natural landscape treatment), and org (organic mineral fertilizer treatment). * trt.code: Character string describing the treatment of each row but modified for vizualization purposed. Identical to "trt" with the exception that "nat" has been changed to "A" to allow for it to come first in visualizations that order plotting materials alphabetically. * land.group: Character string that separates residential landscapes from natural areas. Options include: urban (residential landscapes) or nat (natural areas). Likely unneeded but an artifact of prior versions of code and allows for easier separation if interested in assessing drivers of residential landscape dynamics alone. * fert.group: Character string that separates fertilizer treatments but combines the synthetic and organic mineral fertilizer treatments. Identical to "trt" with the exception of "org" being changed to "fert" for this group. This would allow for lumping mineral fertilizer treatments together for analysis, which was done preliminarily but not included in the final analysis. * prev.sample: Date of the prior sampling event. Could be used to calculate the time between sampling events if inconsistent; format: mm/dd/yyyy * sample.date: Sampling date; format: mm/dd/yyyy * days: Number of days between the previous sampling event and the current sampling event. * vol: Leachate volume collected; Units: mL * vol.per.day: Average leachate volume during the inter-sample period; calculated as "vol"/"days"; units: ml d-1 * NH4N.mg.l: Ammonium concentration in leachate. Zero by definition if no leachate was collected. Values below detection limit are reported as 0.5* the detection limit. Zeros for days with leachate collect represent below detection values; Units: mg L-1; Detection limit: 0.02 mg L-1. * NO3N.mg.l: Nitrate + nitrite concentration in leachate. Zero by definition if no leachate was collected. Values below detection limit are reported as 0.5* the detection limit. Zeros for days with leachate collect represent below detection values; Units: mg L-1; Detection limit: 0.02 mg L-1. * TKN.mg.l: Total Kjeldahl nitrogen concentration in leachate. Zero by definition if no leachate was collected. Values below detection limit are reported as 0.5* the detection limit. Zeros for days with leachate collect represent below detection values; Units: mg L-1; Detection limit: 0.02 mg L-1. * PO4.ug.l: Ortho-phosphate concentration in leachate. Zero by definition if no leachate was collected. Values below detection limit are reported as 0.5* the detection limit. Zeros for days with leachate collect represent below detection values; Units: ug L-1; Detection limit: 10 ug L-1. * TotalP.ug.l: Total phosphorus concentration in leachate. Zero by definition if no leachate was collected. Values below detection limit are reported as 0.5* the detection limit. Zeros for days with leachate collect represent below detection values; Units: ug L-1; Detection limit: 10 ug L-1. ## Code/software Quantifying nutrient leaching loads, producing figures, and analyzing results as described in Reisinger et al. manuscript accepted in the Journal of Environmental Quality (DOI: 10.1002/jeq2.20657) was conducted in the statistical software R. The R script is included here and includes various packages needed to run the analysis and produce the figures. ## Access information Not applicable.