Evaluating connections between personal well-being and adoption of landscape best management practices: An audience segmentation study.

Integrated pest management and outdoor water conservation comprise key practices encouraged by nonformal educators who work with the public to address significant issues related to water quality and availability. Disconnects among diverse audiences and educational programs pose challenges in achieving the goals of these types of programs. To discern a potential nonformal educational programming strategy, we conducted audience segmentation research incorporating residential environmental landscape best management practices and compared resulting subgroups' characteristics. We explored this paradigm through the context of Extension education and used a nationally-distributed electronic survey instrument to measure well-being and landscape management perceptions and practices in the United States. We collected 2601 complete survey responses and employed cluster analysis to divide the respondents into homogenous subgroups, followed by analysis of variance and chi-square analyses to identify differences among the subgroups. The group that indicated the highest level of engagement with water conservation and IPM practices also had significantly higher well-being, demonstrating the potential to align IPM education with more commonly promoted conservation practices. Membership in the highest IPM and water conservation group was related to several socio-demographic characteristics, including age, homeownership, and homeowners' association membership. This group was also most likely to engage with educational programs. Understanding these indicators of engagement in landscape best management practices and nonformal education, along with higher well-being, may be useful in determining target audiences and potential engagement with nonformal education programs.

Climate and lawn management interact to control C4 plant distribution in residential lawns across seven U.S. cities.

In natural grasslands, C4 plant dominance increases with growing season temperatures and reflects distinct differences in plant growth rates and water use efficiencies of C3 vs. C4 photosynthetic pathways. However, in lawns, management decisions influence interactions between planted turfgrass and weed species, leading to some uncertainty about the degree of human vs. climatic controls on lawn species distributions. We measured herbaceous plant carbon isotope ratios (δ13 C, index of C3 /C4 relative abundance) and C4 cover in residential lawns across seven U.S. cities to determine how climate, lawn plant management, or interactions between climate and plant management influenced C4 lawn cover. We also calculated theoretical C4 carbon gain predicted by a plant physiological model as an index of expected C4 cover due to growing season climatic conditions in each city. Contrary to theoretical predictions, plant δ13 C and C4 cover in urban lawns were more strongly related to mean annual temperature than to growing season temperature. Wintertime temperatures influenced the distribution of C4 lawn turf plants, contrary to natural ecosystems where growing season temperatures primarily drive C4 distributions. C4 cover in lawns was greatest in the three warmest cities, due to an interaction between climate and homeowner plant management (e.g., planting C4 turf species) in these cities. The proportion of C4 lawn species was similar to the proportion of C4 species in the regional grass flora. However, the majority of C4 species were nonnative turf grasses, and not of regional origin. While temperature was a strong control on lawn species composition across the United States, cities differed as to whether these patterns were driven by cultivated lawn grasses vs. weedy species. In some cities, biotic interactions with weedy plants appeared to dominate, while in other cities, C4 plants were predominantly imported and cultivated. Elevated CO2 and temperature in cities can influence C3 /C4 competitive outcomes; however, this study provides evidence that climate and plant management dynamics influence biogeography and ecology of C3 /C4 plants in lawns. Their differing water and nutrient use efficiency may have substantial impacts on carbon, water, energy, and nutrient budgets across cities.