The Impact of Turfgrass on Urban Carbon Dioxide Fluxes in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Evaluating the efficacy of climate mitigation measures requires quantifying urban greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Both anthropogenic and biogenic GHG fluxes are important in urban systems, and disaggregation is necessary to understand urban GHG fluxes. In urban environments one common source of biogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) fluxes is turfgrass. We use CO2 fluxes measured using eddy covariance over a cemetery (less managed) and golf course (more managed) to investigate the contribution of turfgrass lawns to biogenic CO2 fluxes in Indianapolis, IN. We assess the ability of a simple light‐use efficiency model, the Vegetation Photosynthesis and Respiration Model (VPRM), commonly used to create prior fluxes necessary for determining urban carbon dioxide (CO2) fluxes via inversion modeling, to represent daily and seasonal patterns in turfgrass CO2 fluxes. Our results show that the existing VPRM Plant Functional Types (PFTs) cannot capture observed daily and seasonal fluxes at either location. We then use data from these sites to create a new turfgrass PFT for the VPRM. We find that less‐managed lawns like cemeteries are best represented by different parameters than heavily managed lawns like golf courses, and seasonally changing parameters best match the observed fluxes. We then use the new turfgrass PFT within the VPRM to explore daily and seasonal variability in turfgrass fluxes and their impact, integrated across the city, on urban ecosystem CO2 fluxes. This study illustrates the importance of representing turfgrass as a unique PFT when quantifying urban GHG fluxes and the biases resulting from misrepresentation.
DOI: 10.1029/2024jg008477
Authors: Jason P. Horne, Claire Jin, Natasha L. Miles, Scott J. Richardson, Samantha L. Murphy, Kai Wu, Kenneth J. Davis
Language: English
Subfield: Global and Planetary Change
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $4,070
Awards: PURPOSE: THIS AWARD WILL INVESTIGATE AND DEVELOP CAPABILITIES TO ESTIMATE EMISSIONS IN THE INDIANAPOLIS REGION ON A MONTHLY TO QUARTERLY CADENCE. RESEARCH WILL FOCUS ON DEVELOPMENT OF ECONOMIC SECTOR-SPECIFIC EMISSIONS METHODOLOGIES, IMPACT OF BIOGENIC CO2 FLOWS TO AND FROM THE ATMOSPHERE AND THEIR IMPACT ON EMISSIONS ESTIMATES.ACTIVITIES TO BE PERFORMED: RESEARCH EFFORTS ARE AIMED AT THE FOLLOWING:* CONTINUED OPERATION OF THE INDIANAPOLIS TESTBED,* ADVANCING ATMOSPHERIC INVERSION MODELING BOTH NEAR REAL-TIME AND LONG-TERM,* HIGH RESOLUTION, SECTOR-SPECIFIC EMISSION FLUX MEASUREMENT OF BIOGENIC/ANTHROPOGENIC SOURCES,* INTEGRATION OF LOW-COST SENSORS INTO INVERSIONS,* CREATION OF AN URBAN GHG DISPERSION OBSERVATORY.EXPECTED OUTCOMES: SEVERAL OUTCOMES ARE EXPECTED. DEMONSTRATIONS WILL INCLUDE:* CONTINUOUS, MULTI-YEAR MONITORING OF ATMOSPHERIC INVERSE FLUX ESTIMATES THAT IS OF SUFFICIENT ACCURACY AND PRECISION FOR OPERATIONAL NEEDS;* A FRAMEWORK FOR NEAR-REAL TIME URBAN GHG EMISSIONS ESTIMATES THAT COULD BE MAINTAINED PRIMARILY WITH OPERATIONAL METEOROLOGICAL DATA AND MODELS;* SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCE THE POTENTIAL FOR SYSTEMATIC BIAS IN URBAN GHG INVERSE FLUX ESTIMATES;* DEMONSTRATE NEW APPROACHES FOR CONTINUOUS MONITORING OF SPATIALLY RESOLVED, SECTOR-SPECIFIC URBAN GHG EMISSIONS AND USE OF THESE METHODS TO TEST PROCESS BASED MODELS OF URBAN GHG EMISSIONS, AND* IMPROVE THE SIMULATION OF LAND-ATMOSPHERE FLUXES WITHIN CITIES, IN SUPPORT OF IMPROVED URBAN GHG FLUX INVERSIONS.INTENDED BENEFICIARIES: ACADEMIA, LOCAL AND STATE GOVERNMENTS AND THE PRIVATE SECTOR.SUBRECIPIENT ACTIVITIES: THE RECIPIENT DOES NOT INTEND TO SUBAWARD FUNDS., ESTIMATION OF URBAN GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS USING REGIONAL ATMOSPHERIC INVERSIONS
OpenAlex ID: W4409154622