Soil biodiversity supports the delivery of multiple ecosystem functions in urban greenspaces

Abstract

While the contribution of biodiversity to supporting multiple ecosystem functions is well-established in natural ecosystems, the relationship of the above and belowground diversity with ecosystem multifunctionality remains virtually unknown in urban greenspaces. Here, we conducted a standardized survey of urban greenspaces from 56 municipalities across six continents, aiming to investigate the relationships of plant and soil biodiversity (diversity of bacteria, fungi, protists, and invertebrates, and metagenomics-based functional diversity) with 18 surrogates of ecosystem functions from nine ecosystem services. We found that soil biodiversity across biomes was significantly and positively correlated with multiple dimensions of ecosystem functions, and contributed to key ecosystem services such as microbial-driven carbon pools, organic matter decomposition, plant productivity, nutrient cycling, water regulation, plant-soil mutualism, plant pathogen control, and antibiotic resistance regulation. Plant diversity only indirectly influenced multifunctionality in urban greenspaces via changes in soil conditions that were associated with soil biodiversity. These findings were maintained after controlling for climate, spatial context, soil properties, vegetation, and management practices. This study provides solid evidence that conserving soil biodiversity in urban greenspaces is key to support multiple dimensions of ecosystem functioning, which is critical for the sustainability of urban ecosystems and human wellbeing.

Phagotrophic Protists Modulate Copper Resistance of the Bacterial Community in Soil

“…In combination with a field survey and microcosm investigation, our results showed the fundamental importance of soil phagotrophs in influencing the Cu R bacterial community. However, we have to acknowledge that field experiments normally display weak and moderate correlations between microbial attributes and a certain environmental factor since multiple environmental variables contribute to variations in microbial communities. ,, Under metal-polluted conditions, the impact of soil properties (e.g., pH, organic matter content, and nutrient availability) on soil microbial communities has been shown to be stronger than the selective pressure posed by metal pollution. , This may explain the low R 2 value of correlation analysis when assessing the relationship between A Cu content and microbial attributes in our study. However, the weak but significant relationships from field experiments still provide us an important clue for the ecological effect of Cu pollution and phagotrophs on the bacterial communities.…”

“…However, we have to acknowledge that field experiments normally display weak and moderate correlations between microbial attributes and a certain environmental factor since multiple environmental variables contribute to variations in microbial communities. 7,49,70 Under metalpolluted conditions, the impact of soil properties (e.g., pH, organic matter content, and nutrient availability) on soil microbial communities has been shown to be stronger than the selective pressure posed by metal pollution. 71,72 in our study.…”

Soil organic carbon loss decreases biodiversity but stimulates multitrophic interactions that promote belowground metabolism

“…In this analysis, only probable and highly probable guilds supporting unique trophic lifestyle were used. The invertebrates were defined as Annelida, Arthropoda, Cnidaria, Gastrotricha, Nematoda, and Rotifera in eukaryotes, and the protists were defined as all eukaryotic taxa excluding fungi, invertebrates and Streptophyta according to previous researches (Delgado‐Baquerizo et al., 2020; Fan et al., 2023; Jiao et al., 2021). To standardize the sequencing efforts across all samples, the reads in ASV tables were rarefied to the minimum number from each sample, at 32,171 for archaea, 58,762 for bacteria, 39,416 for fungi, 567 for invertebrates and 9484 for protists.…”

Supporting urban greenspace with microbial symbiosis

“…While the benefits of greenspace are well recognized, the soil life that lies beneath urban environments is rarely recognized for its important ecosystem functions. In particular, the microbial communities that support these spaces are largely ignored (Fan et al, 2023; Hazelton & Murphy, 2007). Plants, both in natural and urban environments, benefit from traits that are encoded by their complex microbiomes.…”