In an attempt to understand the impact humans are having on the environment around us, scientists are increasingly setting up experiments in a strange new world: suburbia. The latest news on environmental impacts is just as likely to come from a study of suburban lawns or the creek by the mall as it is from a thick forest or wilderness.

At an annual scientific conference in San Francisco last week, there were several talks on the ecology of suburbia [1]. Topics included: river pollution from suburban sprawl [2], how turf lawns impact the flow of nutrients through an ecosystem, and how storm water runoff (from driveways and roads, for instance) affects the health of rivers, lakes, and even oceans

The San Jose Mercury News noted the phenomenon in a great story on Friday [3], describing a study of suburban yards that’s examining “how much carbon dioxide the lawns absorb and give off, and whether they’re contributing to global warming [3] or slowing it down.”

According to the paper, suburbs are “one of the fastest-growing land covers in the United States and the world,” so their impacts on the environment could be huge. The Mercury News story also noted that sprawling suburbia is likely the biggest threat to wildlife diversity.

Photo credit: Center for Native Ecosystems [4]