Ashwani:
I'm sending your email to a colleague who may offer assistance. I hope you
will share all responses.
We have corresponded on soil health before. Increased use of porous
pavements will help in a lot of ways, not the least of which is water
infiltration and gas exchange. Actually restoring indigenous ecosystems
where they will get the urban job done will be best, as soil health is
determined by the resiliency afforded by the interaction of plants and
animals uniquely adapted to the local environment. Landscaping is not as
destructive as pavement, but neither does it guarantee the level of soil
health that a self-sufficient, indigenous complex of plants and animals
(including soil fauna, fungi, bacteria, cyanobacteria and other ignored
organisms) will. Landsacping promotes alien pests, and never achives the
diversity, never mind the reslience (it is VERY "brittle") that an
indigenous ecosystem can.
If you use pavement with sizeable openings, introduce the local cryptobiotic
community; it will prevent "compaction" (loss of infiltration capacity) and
add/remove nutrients for improved groundwater quality and overall soil and
ecosystem health.
WT
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ashwani Vasishth" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 6:02 PM
Subject: [ECOLOG-L] Soil health and urban impervious surfaces
I'm working on a paper that seeks to characterize ways in which we might
more effectively ecologize urban and suburban agglomerations. As part of
that effort, and given that one of the most significant impacts that
urbanization has on the land is the laying of impervious surfaces, I'd
like to better understand the idea of soil health.
Specifically, do we adversely impact soil health by laying impervious
surfaces down upon the land? And, if so, would the increased use of
porous pavement and pervious materials actually improve soil ecology? What
might I read to better understand this relationship, please?
Thanks,
-
Ashwani
Vasishth [EMAIL PROTECTED] (818) 677-6137
http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/
