Why you shouldn't let your dog pee on green infrastructure:
Take a walk in New York City and you'll notice dogs peeing in the small green areas next to the sidewalk. These rain gardens, or bioswales, are used to
concentrate and remove pollution from the water before it drains. The bioswales are designed to slowly let water filter through, in order to maximize the collection of debris. Unfortunately, dog urine may be reducing the beneficial effects of the rain gardens., released last week, shows that dog urine can disrupt microbial activity in these rain gardens that help with retaining moisture in the soil as well as plant growth.
Why were the researchers concerned about dog urine in the first place? Urine contains high levels of nitrogen. Nitrogen alters the composition and activity of both plants and microbes. For example, ecologists have been able to easily measure impacts of run-off and nitrogen deposited from car emissions. A similar effect happens on a smaller scale when the neighborhood dogs pee on smaller rain garden areas.
Nitrogen from urine builds up in the soil in the form of ammonia and ammonium, which have an ionic charge. This charge, along with osmolytic effects, pulls water into the soil and away from microbes and plant roots, causing them to dry up.The researchers did struggle to get dog urine—despite reaching out to several shelters across the five boroughs of New York City, only one granted permission to collect dog urine. Unfortunately , when dogs pee can be unpredictable.
As canine dog urine increases in soil, microbial diversity goes down. Even samples treated with the lowest concentrations of urine saw decreases in microbial diversity. There was also observable decreases in the growth of the plant roots. All together, the ability of the rain garden soil to hold water was compromised. Letting your dog pee on the bioswales may negate the reason they were built.
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