Embedding nutrients in urban climate thinking

Although decision-makers are trying to better manage urban nutrient flows, including through the implementation of ecological infrastructure programs, there is still a lack of empirical knowledge as to how such programs affect the fate of nutrients and the ecosystem services that depend on nutrient flows. It is urgently necessary to decrease losses of phosphorus and nitrogen to the environment and increase circularity. At the same time, strategies that are implemented must be both efficient under current conditions and support the resilience of food, water, and waste systems in the face of a changing climate.

Summer 2024 research assistants (left to right: Aiyshah Kirmani, Ryan Quirk) preparing soil and manure samples for third-party testing.

This work is supported by NSERC Discovery Grant, as well as Western Social Science Faculty funding.

This research program combines empirical and modeling approaches to integrate cross-scale dynamics in novel ways to advance our knowledge of urban nutrient flows. This involves working with gardeners and farmers around London Ontario in their own plots, as well as the set up of a living lab on Western’s campus to better monitor leachate and runoff year-round.

The goals of this program are to…

  • 1

    Quantify nutrient flows and drivers of their magnitude and direction and assess the unintentional impact of other resource management on nutrient flows.

  • 2

    Measure how changing seasonal temperature and precipitation patterns affect losses of nutrients from urban and peri-urban agricultural plots.

  • 3

    Model future scenarios (related to land use and climate change interactions) to explore the impacts of scaling up urban and peri-urban agriculture on climate and water quality goals.

Project Updates

September 2024:

Phase One of the project, which involved surveying current gardening practices, has been completed. A preliminary gardener report with compiled data and findings is available here.

Next steps:

Begin Phase Two, which explores nutrient flows through installed lysimeters, soil and moisture probes, and leaf wetness sensors in urban gardens.