Urban greenspaces and nearby natural areas support similar levels of soil ecosystem services

David J. Eldridge; Haiying Cui; Jingyi Ding; Miguel Berdugo; Tadeo Sáez-Sandino; Jorge Duran; Juan Gaitan; José L. Blanco-Pastor; Alexandra Rodríguez; César Plaza; Fernando Alfaro; Alberto L. Teixido; Sebastian Abades; Adebola R. Bamigboye; Gabriel F. Peñaloza-Bojacá; Tine Grebenc; Tine U. Nahberger; Javier G. Illán; Yu Rong Liu; Thulani P. Makhalanyane; Ana Rey; Christina Siebe; Wei Sun; Pankaj Trivedi; Jay Prakash Verma; Ling Wang; Jianyong Wang; Tianxue Wang; Eli Zaady; Xiaobing Zhou; Xin Quan Zhou; Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo

doi:10.1038/s42949-024-00154-z

Urban greenspaces and nearby natural areas support similar levels of soil ecosystem services

David J. Eldridge
, Haiying Cui
, Jingyi Ding
, Miguel Berdugo
, Tadeo Sáez-Sandino
, Jorge Duran
, Juan Gaitan
, José L. Blanco-Pastor
, Alexandra Rodríguez
, César Plaza
, Fernando Alfaro
, Alberto L. Teixido
, Sebastian Abades
, Adebola R. Bamigboye
, Gabriel F. Peñaloza-Bojacá
, Tine Grebenc
, Tine U. Nahberger
, Javier G. Illán
, Yu Rong Liu
, Thulani P. Makhalanyane

Ana Rey, Christina Siebe, Wei Sun, Pankaj Trivedi, Jay Prakash Verma, Ling Wang, Jianyong Wang, Tianxue Wang, Eli Zaady, Xiaobing Zhou, Xin Quan Zhou, Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo

University of New South Wales
Northeast Normal University
Beijing Normal University
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich
Complutense University
Departamento de Sistemas Físicos
Universidad Pablo de Olavide
CSIC - Biological Mission of Galicia
University of Coimbra
Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria
University of Seville
Universidad Mayor
Instituto de Ecología y Biodiversidad
Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso
Obafemi Awolowo University
Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais
Slovenian Forestry Institute
Washington State University Pullman
Huazhong Agricultural University
University of Pretoria
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Department of Bioagricultural Sciences and Pest Management
Colorado State University
Banaras Hindu University
Universidade Federal do Ceará
Agricultural Research Organization of Israel
CAS - Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography
CSIC - Institute of Natural Resources and Agrobiology of Seville

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

29 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Greenspaces are important for sustaining healthy urban environments and their human populations. Yet their capacity to support multiple ecosystem services simultaneously (multiservices) compared with nearby natural ecosystems remains virtually unknown. We conducted a global field survey in 56 urban areas to investigate the influence of urban greenspaces on 23 soil and plant attributes and compared them with nearby natural environments. We show that, in general, urban greenspaces and nearby natural areas support similar levels of soil multiservices, with only six of 23 attributes (available phosphorus, water holding capacity, water respiration, plant cover, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), and arachnid richness) significantly greater in greenspaces, and one (available ammonium) greater in natural areas. Further analyses showed that, although natural areas and urban greenspaces delivered a similar number of services at low (>25% threshold) and moderate (>50%) levels of functioning, natural systems supported significantly more functions at high (>75%) levels of functioning. Management practices (mowing) played an important role in explaining urban ecosystem services, but there were no effects of fertilisation or irrigation. Some services declined with increasing site size, for both greenspaces and natural areas. Our work highlights the fact that urban greenspaces are more similar to natural environments than previously reported and underscores the importance of managing urban greenspaces not only for their social and recreational values, but for supporting multiple ecosystem services on which soils and human well-being depends.

Original language	English
Article number	15
Pages (from-to)	1382-1387
Number of pages	9
Journal	npj Urban Sustainability
Volume	4
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s42949-024-00154-z
Publication status	Published - Dec 2024
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© Crown 2024.

Open Access - Access Right Statement

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities

Access to Document

10.1038/s42949-024-00154-z

Cite this

Eldridge, D. J., Cui, H., Ding, J., Berdugo, M., Sáez-Sandino, T., Duran, J., Gaitan, J., Blanco-Pastor, J. L., Rodríguez, A., Plaza, C., Alfaro, F., Teixido, A. L., Abades, S., Bamigboye, A. R., Peñaloza-Bojacá, G. F., Grebenc, T., Nahberger, T. U., Illán, J. G., Liu, Y. R., ... Delgado-Baquerizo, M. (2024). Urban greenspaces and nearby natural areas support similar levels of soil ecosystem services. npj Urban Sustainability, 4(1), 1382-1387. Article 15. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42949-024-00154-z

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title = "Urban greenspaces and nearby natural areas support similar levels of soil ecosystem services",

abstract = "Greenspaces are important for sustaining healthy urban environments and their human populations. Yet their capacity to support multiple ecosystem services simultaneously (multiservices) compared with nearby natural ecosystems remains virtually unknown. We conducted a global field survey in 56 urban areas to investigate the influence of urban greenspaces on 23 soil and plant attributes and compared them with nearby natural environments. We show that, in general, urban greenspaces and nearby natural areas support similar levels of soil multiservices, with only six of 23 attributes (available phosphorus, water holding capacity, water respiration, plant cover, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), and arachnid richness) significantly greater in greenspaces, and one (available ammonium) greater in natural areas. Further analyses showed that, although natural areas and urban greenspaces delivered a similar number of services at low (>25\% threshold) and moderate (>50\%) levels of functioning, natural systems supported significantly more functions at high (>75\%) levels of functioning. Management practices (mowing) played an important role in explaining urban ecosystem services, but there were no effects of fertilisation or irrigation. Some services declined with increasing site size, for both greenspaces and natural areas. Our work highlights the fact that urban greenspaces are more similar to natural environments than previously reported and underscores the importance of managing urban greenspaces not only for their social and recreational values, but for supporting multiple ecosystem services on which soils and human well-being depends.",

author = "Eldridge, \{David J.\} and Haiying Cui and Jingyi Ding and Miguel Berdugo and Tadeo S{\'a}ez-Sandino and Jorge Duran and Juan Gaitan and Blanco-Pastor, \{Jos{\'e} L.\} and Alexandra Rodr{\'i}guez and C{\'e}sar Plaza and Fernando Alfaro and Teixido, \{Alberto L.\} and Sebastian Abades and Bamigboye, \{Adebola R.\} and Pe{\~n}aloza-Bojac{\'a}, \{Gabriel F.\} and Tine Grebenc and Nahberger, \{Tine U.\} and Ill{\'a}n, \{Javier G.\} and Liu, \{Yu Rong\} and Makhalanyane, \{Thulani P.\} and Ana Rey and Christina Siebe and Wei Sun and Pankaj Trivedi and Verma, \{Jay Prakash\} and Ling Wang and Jianyong Wang and Tianxue Wang and Eli Zaady and Xiaobing Zhou and Zhou, \{Xin Quan\} and Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} Crown 2024.",

year = "2024",

month = dec,

doi = "10.1038/s42949-024-00154-z",

language = "English",

volume = "4",

pages = "1382--1387",

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Eldridge, DJ, Cui, H, Ding, J, Berdugo, M, Sáez-Sandino, T, Duran, J, Gaitan, J, Blanco-Pastor, JL, Rodríguez, A, Plaza, C, Alfaro, F, Teixido, AL, Abades, S, Bamigboye, AR, Peñaloza-Bojacá, GF, Grebenc, T, Nahberger, TU, Illán, JG, Liu, YR, Makhalanyane, TP, Rey, A, Siebe, C, Sun, W, Trivedi, P, Verma, JP, Wang, L, Wang, J, Wang, T, Zaady, E, Zhou, X, Zhou, XQ & Delgado-Baquerizo, M 2024, 'Urban greenspaces and nearby natural areas support similar levels of soil ecosystem services', npj Urban Sustainability, vol. 4, no. 1, 15, pp. 1382-1387. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42949-024-00154-z

TY - JOUR

T1 - Urban greenspaces and nearby natural areas support similar levels of soil ecosystem services

AU - Eldridge, David J.

AU - Cui, Haiying

AU - Ding, Jingyi

AU - Berdugo, Miguel

AU - Sáez-Sandino, Tadeo

AU - Duran, Jorge

AU - Gaitan, Juan

AU - Blanco-Pastor, José L.

AU - Rodríguez, Alexandra

AU - Plaza, César

AU - Alfaro, Fernando

AU - Teixido, Alberto L.

AU - Abades, Sebastian

AU - Bamigboye, Adebola R.

AU - Peñaloza-Bojacá, Gabriel F.

AU - Grebenc, Tine

AU - Nahberger, Tine U.

AU - Illán, Javier G.

AU - Liu, Yu Rong

AU - Makhalanyane, Thulani P.

AU - Rey, Ana

AU - Siebe, Christina

AU - Sun, Wei

AU - Trivedi, Pankaj

AU - Verma, Jay Prakash

AU - Wang, Ling

AU - Wang, Jianyong

AU - Wang, Tianxue

AU - Zaady, Eli

AU - Zhou, Xiaobing

AU - Zhou, Xin Quan

AU - Delgado-Baquerizo, Manuel

PY - 2024/12

Y1 - 2024/12

N2 - Greenspaces are important for sustaining healthy urban environments and their human populations. Yet their capacity to support multiple ecosystem services simultaneously (multiservices) compared with nearby natural ecosystems remains virtually unknown. We conducted a global field survey in 56 urban areas to investigate the influence of urban greenspaces on 23 soil and plant attributes and compared them with nearby natural environments. We show that, in general, urban greenspaces and nearby natural areas support similar levels of soil multiservices, with only six of 23 attributes (available phosphorus, water holding capacity, water respiration, plant cover, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), and arachnid richness) significantly greater in greenspaces, and one (available ammonium) greater in natural areas. Further analyses showed that, although natural areas and urban greenspaces delivered a similar number of services at low (>25% threshold) and moderate (>50%) levels of functioning, natural systems supported significantly more functions at high (>75%) levels of functioning. Management practices (mowing) played an important role in explaining urban ecosystem services, but there were no effects of fertilisation or irrigation. Some services declined with increasing site size, for both greenspaces and natural areas. Our work highlights the fact that urban greenspaces are more similar to natural environments than previously reported and underscores the importance of managing urban greenspaces not only for their social and recreational values, but for supporting multiple ecosystem services on which soils and human well-being depends.

AB - Greenspaces are important for sustaining healthy urban environments and their human populations. Yet their capacity to support multiple ecosystem services simultaneously (multiservices) compared with nearby natural ecosystems remains virtually unknown. We conducted a global field survey in 56 urban areas to investigate the influence of urban greenspaces on 23 soil and plant attributes and compared them with nearby natural environments. We show that, in general, urban greenspaces and nearby natural areas support similar levels of soil multiservices, with only six of 23 attributes (available phosphorus, water holding capacity, water respiration, plant cover, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), and arachnid richness) significantly greater in greenspaces, and one (available ammonium) greater in natural areas. Further analyses showed that, although natural areas and urban greenspaces delivered a similar number of services at low (>25% threshold) and moderate (>50%) levels of functioning, natural systems supported significantly more functions at high (>75%) levels of functioning. Management practices (mowing) played an important role in explaining urban ecosystem services, but there were no effects of fertilisation or irrigation. Some services declined with increasing site size, for both greenspaces and natural areas. Our work highlights the fact that urban greenspaces are more similar to natural environments than previously reported and underscores the importance of managing urban greenspaces not only for their social and recreational values, but for supporting multiple ecosystem services on which soils and human well-being depends.

UR - https://hdl.handle.net/1959.7/uws:76472

U2 - 10.1038/s42949-024-00154-z

DO - 10.1038/s42949-024-00154-z

M3 - Article

SN - 2661-8001

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ER -

Urban greenspaces and nearby natural areas support similar levels of soil ecosystem services

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Open Access - Access Right Statement

UN SDGs

Access to Document

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