The extent and pathways of nitrogen loss in turfgrass systems: Age impacts

Turf, including athletic fields, parks, golf courses and home lawns, is a popular urban and suburban land cover in the world for aesthetic and recreational purposes. Its acreage surges continuously with rapid global urbanization, and mitigating N loss from turf will remain a challenge and a goal. While microbial growth efficiency (g), turnover (t), and activity (a)-mediated organic matter degradation could all regulate the pool size of soil soluble N and therefore the loss of reactive N from turf, their trends over time differed. The combined effects led to a time delineated cup-shaped pattern of reactive N loss from turf. Seasonal variations of carbon and nutrient availability reacted to temperatures to affect extent and pathways of reactive N loss.120