Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA.
J Environ Manage. 2024 Oct;369:122324. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.122324. Epub 2024 Sep 1.
Urban and suburban development frequently disturbs and compacts soils, reducing infiltration rates and fertility, posing challenges for post-development vegetation establishment, and contributing to soil erosion. This study investigated the effectiveness of compost incorporation in enhancing stormwater infiltration and vegetation establishment in urban landscapes. Experimental treatments comprised a split-split plot design of vegetation mix (grass, wildflowers, and grass-wildflowers) as main plot, ground cover (hydro-mulch and excelsior) as subplot, and compost (30% Compost and No-Compost) as sub-subplot factors. Wildflower inclusion was motivated by their recognized ecological benefits, including aesthetics, pollinator habitat, and deep root systems. Vegetation cover was assessed using RGB (Red-Green-Blue) imagery and ArcGIS-based supervised image classification. Over a 24-month period, bulk density, infiltration rate, soil penetration resistance, vegetation cover, and root mass density were assessed. Results highlighted that Compost treatments consistently reduced bulk density by 19-24%, lowered soil penetration resistance to under 2 MPa at both field-capacity and water-stressed conditions, and increased infiltration rate by 2-3 times compared to No-Compost treatments. Vegetation cover assessment revealed rapid establishment with 30% compost and 60:40 grass-wildflower mix, persisting for an initial 12 months. Subsequently, all treatments exhibited similar vegetation coverage from 13 to 24 months, reaching 95-100% cover. Compost treatments had significantly higher root mass density within the top 15 cm than No-Compost, but compost addition did not alter the root profile beyond the 15 cm depth incorporation depth. The findings suggest that incorporating 30% compost and including a wildflower or grass-wildflower mix appears to be effective in enhancing stormwater infiltration and provides rapid erosion control vegetation cover establishment in post-construction landscapes.
城市和郊区的发展经常扰乱和压实土壤，降低入渗率和肥力，给后期开发的植被建立带来挑战，并导致土壤侵蚀。本研究调查了在城市景观中添加堆肥对增强雨水渗透和植被建立的效果。实验处理采用植被混合（草、野花和草-野花）为主区、地被（水培和刨花）为副区、堆肥（30%堆肥和无堆肥）为副副区的裂区-裂区设计。包括野花是因为它们具有公认的生态效益，包括美观、传粉媒介栖息地和深根系。植被覆盖率采用 RGB（红-绿-蓝）图像和基于 ArcGIS 的监督图像分类进行评估。在 24 个月的时间里，评估了体积密度、入渗率、土壤穿透阻力、植被覆盖率和根质量密度。结果表明，与无堆肥处理相比，堆肥处理可将体积密度降低 19-24%，在田间持水量和水分胁迫条件下将土壤穿透阻力降低至 2MPa 以下，并将入渗率提高 2-3 倍。植被覆盖率评估显示，30%堆肥和 60:40 草-野花混合的快速建立，持续了最初的 12 个月。随后，所有处理在 13 至 24 个月期间的植被覆盖率相似，达到 95-100%。堆肥处理在 0-15cm 深度范围内的根质量密度明显高于无堆肥处理，但堆肥的添加并未改变 15cm 深度以上的根分布。研究结果表明，添加 30%堆肥并包含野花或草-野花混合，可以有效地增强雨水渗透，并在施工后景观中快速建立控制侵蚀的植被覆盖。
