Mary Lusk
· Assistant ProfessorUniversity of Florida · Soil and Water Sciences
Active 1996–2026
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About
Mary Lusk is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Soil, Water, and Ecosystem Sciences at the University of Florida, affiliated with the Gulf Coast Research and Education Center. Her research focuses on urban soil and water quality, particularly how landscape management practices at site and neighborhood scales influence the storage, transport, and fate of constituents that may lead to water quality degradation. She investigates the flux and storage of nutrients in managed urban landscapes and explores the linkages between landscape management practices and urban soil and water quality. Her work is driven by the hypothesis that human decisions in urban land management can influence the accumulation and turnover of ecologically important elements such as carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus in urban soils, which in turn affects land-water exchanges of these elements. Her research includes elucidating mechanisms of nutrient cycling under ecological disturbance and developing urban best management practices to maintain soil organic matter, reduce stormwater flows, and improve nutrient efficiency. In addition to her research, Mary Lusk leads extension programs aimed at developing regional partnerships to provide Floridians with science-based information on water conservation. Her extension efforts focus on educating the public about water conservation, alternative water supplies, and water use efficiency, with goals to reduce water use in landscapes, increase urban irrigation…
Research topics
- Environmental science
- Ecology
- Chemistry
- Environmental chemistry
- Geotechnical engineering
- Biology
- Meteorology
- Geology
- Forestry
- Geography
Selected publications
PLoS ONE · 2020 · 90 citations
Stormwater runoff is a leading cause of nitrogen (N) transport to water bodies and hence one means of water quality deterioration. Stormwater runoff was monitored in an urban residential catchment (drainage area: 3.89 hectares) in Florida, United States to investigate the concentrations, forms, and sources of N. Runoff samples were collected over 22 storm events (May to September 2016) at the end of a stormwater pipe that delivers runoff from the catchment to the stormwater pond. Various N forms…
The Science of The Total Environment · 2020 · 40 citations
Frontiers in Forests and Global Change · 2022 · 26 citations
Urban Tree Canopy (UTC) greatly enhances the livability of cities by reducing urban heat buildup, mitigating stormwater runoff, and filtering airborne particulates, among other ecological services. These benefits, combined with the relative ease of measuring tree cover from aerial imagery, have led many cities to adopt management strategies based on UTC goals. In this study, we conducted canopy analyses for 300 cities in Florida to assess the impacts of development practices, urban forest ordina…
Greening development: Reducing urban tree canopy loss through incentives
Urban forestry & urban greening · 2023-12-19 · 16 citations
articleThe Science of The Total Environment · 2023-06-30 · 8 citations
article1st authorCorresponding
Frequent coauthors
- 25 shared
Gurpal S. Toor
University of Maryland, College Park
- 9 shared
Andrew K. Koeser
University of Florida
- 9 shared
Deborah R. Hilbert
Purchase College
- 9 shared
Amanda Lorraine Muni-Morgan
University of Florida
- 8 shared
Lisa Krimsky
University of Florida
- 6 shared
Alexander J. Reisinger
- 6 shared
Yun‐Ya Yang
Alameda Hospital
- 6 shared
Juma Bukomba
University of Florida
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