Socioeconomic affluence influences water usage and nutrient input management in yards, while biodiversity in backyards is higher when landscape services are not hired

Vitor Vieira Vasconcelos, Jesse C. Jones, Olesya Malakhova, Kacey A. Russo, Eben Broadbent and Basil V. Iannone III, School of Forest Resources and Conservation, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, Vitor Vieira Vasconcelos, Center of Engineering, Modelling and Applied Social Sciences, Federal University of ABC, São Bernardo do Campo, Brazil, Nicholas W. Taylor, Ricky Telg, Wendy L. Wilber and M. Jennison Kipp, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, Jiangxiao Qiu, School of Forest Resources & Conservation, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, Adam G. Dale, Entomology and Nematology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL

Background/Question/Methods
Previous research has proposed a positive relationship between socioeconomic affluence and both plant species richness and the use of natural resources in residential landscapes, often referred to as “luxury effect”. In this study, a survey about species richness, landscaping design, and yard management, was combined with water usage and property appraisal data for 102 homes within four neighborhoods in Gainesville, Florida, United States. The relationships amongst yard management activities, plant species richness and socioeconomic variables were analyzed using non-parametric rank tests, cumulative link models, structural equation models and redundancy analysis. The influence of spatial patterns was controlled and investigated using inter-scalar partitioning of variation, as well as nominal and random effects for each neighborhood.
Results/Conclusions
There was no apparent pattern linking property value, a proxy for socioeconomic wealth, to participant-estimated plant species richness. The assessment of the survey responses shows that householders estimate greater biodiversity in backyards than in their front yards, a pattern that is more pronounced amongst homeowners that do not hire professional maintenance services for their backyards, especially in newer houses. Plant biodiversity, in this context, appears to depend more on personal relationships with yards, like preferences for standardized aesthetic patterns of professionally maintained yards, or for hands-on gardening activities, which opens up prospects for further research at intra and inter-yard spatial scales. Regarding the utilization of natural resources, variables associated to socioeconomic wealth correlate positively with intensity of irrigation, lawn fertilization, and leaf raking. In this aspect, there may be less chance of reincorporating organic matter from litter in the trophic system of yards due to increased leaf raking intensity.