Ogden Laura

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Ogden
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Laura
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  • Article
    Continental-scale homogenization of residential lawn plant communities
    (Elsevier, 2017-05-20) Wheeler, Megan M. ; Neill, Christopher ; Groffman, Peter M. ; Avolio, Meghan L. ; Bettez, Neil D. ; Cavender-Bares, Jeannine ; Roy Chowdhury, Rinku ; Darling, Lindsay ; Grove, J. Morgan ; Hall, Sharon J. ; Heffernan, James B. ; Hobbie, Sarah E. ; Larson, Kelli L. ; Morse, Jennifer L. ; Nelson, Kristen ; Ogden, Laura ; O'Neil-Dunne, Jarlath ; Pataki, Diane E. ; Trammell, Tara
    Residential lawns are highly managed ecosystems that occur in urbanized landscapes across the United States. Because they are ubiquitous, lawns are good systems in which to study the potential homogenizing effects of urban land use and management together with the continental-scale effects of climate on ecosystem structure and functioning. We hypothesized that similar homeowner preferences and management in residential areas across the United States would lead to low plant species diversity in lawns and relatively homogeneous vegetation across broad geographical regions. We also hypothesized that lawn plant species richness would increase with regional temperature and precipitation due to the presence of spontaneous, weedy vegetation, but would decrease with household income and fertilizer use. To test these predictions, we compared plant species composition and richness in residential lawns in seven U.S. metropolitan regions. We also compared species composition in lawns with understory vegetation in minimally-managed reference areas in each city. As expected, the composition of cultivated turfgrasses was more similar among lawns than among reference areas, but this pattern also held among spontaneous species. Plant species richness and diversity varied more among lawns than among reference areas, and more diverse lawns occurred in metropolitan areas with higher precipitation. Native forb diversity increased with precipitation and decreased with income, driving overall lawn diversity trends with these predictors as well. Our results showed that both management and regional climate shaped lawn species composition, but the overall homogeneity of species regardless of regional context strongly suggested that management was a more important driver.
  • Article
    Satisfaction, water and fertilizer use in the American residential macrosystem
    (IOPScience, 2016-02-29) Groffman, Peter M. ; Grove, J. Morgan ; Polsky, Colin ; Bettez, Neil D. ; Morse, Jennifer L. ; Cavender-Bares, Jeannine ; Hall, Sharon J. ; Heffernan, James B. ; Hobbie, Sarah E. ; Larson, Kelli L. ; Neill, Christopher ; Nelson, Kristen ; Ogden, Laura ; O'Neil-Dunne, Jarlath ; Pataki, Diane E. ; Roy Chowdhury, Rinku ; Locke, Dexter H.
    Residential yards across the US look remarkably similar despite marked variation in climate and soil, yet the drivers of this homogenization are unknown. Telephone surveys of fertilizer and irrigation use and satisfaction with the natural environment, and measurements of inherent water and nitrogen availability in six US cities (Boston, Baltimore, Miami, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Phoenix, Los Angeles) showed that the percentage of people using irrigation at least once in a year was relatively invariant with little difference between the wettest (Miami, 85%) and driest (Phoenix, 89%) cities. The percentage of people using fertilizer at least once in a year also ranged narrowly (52%–71%), while soil nitrogen supply varied by 10x. Residents expressed similar levels of satisfaction with the natural environment in their neighborhoods. The nature and extent of this satisfaction must be understood if environmental managers hope to effect change in the establishment and maintenance of residential ecosystems.
  • Article
    Ecological homogenization of urban USA
    (Ecological Society of America, 2014-02) Groffman, Peter M. ; Cavender-Bares, Jeannine ; Bettez, Neil D. ; Grove, J. Morgan ; Hall, Sharon J. ; Heffernan, James B. ; Hobbie, Sarah E. ; Larson, Kelli L. ; Morse, Jennifer L. ; Neill, Christopher ; Nelson, Kristen ; O'Neil-Dunne, Jarlath ; Ogden, Laura ; Pataki, Diane E. ; Polsky, Colin ; Roy Chowdhury, Rinku ; Steele, Meredith K.
    A visually apparent but scientifically untested outcome of land-use change is homogenization across urban areas, where neighborhoods in different parts of the country have similar patterns of roads, residential lots, commercial areas, and aquatic features. We hypothesize that this homogenization extends to ecological structure and also to ecosystem functions such as carbon dynamics and microclimate, with continental-scale implications. Further, we suggest that understanding urban homogenization will provide the basis for understanding the impacts of urban land-use change from local to continental scales. Here, we show how multi-scale, multi-disciplinary datasets from six metropolitan areas that cover the major climatic regions of the US (Phoenix, AZ; Miami, FL; Baltimore, MD; Boston, MA; Minneapolis–St Paul, MN; and Los Angeles, CA) can be used to determine how household and neighborhood characteristics correlate with land-management practices, land-cover composition, and landscape structure and ecosystem functions at local, regional, and continental scales.