Abstract
Urban greenspaces support multiple nature-based services, many of which depend on the amount of soil carbon (C). Yet, the environmental drivers of soil C and its sensitivity to warming are still poorly understood globally. Here we use soil samples from 56 paired urban greenspaces and natural ecosystems worldwide and combine soil C concentration and size fractionation measures with metagenomics and warming incubations. We show that surface soils in urban and natural ecosystems sustain similar C concentrations that follow comparable negative relationships with temperature. Plant productivity’s contribution to explaining soil C was higher in natural ecosystems, while in urban ecosystems, the soil microbial biomass had the greatest explanatory power. Moreover, the soil microbiome supported a faster C mineralization rate with experimental warming in urban greenspaces compared with natural ecosystems. Consequently, urban management strategies should consider the soil microbiome to maintain soil C and related ecosystem services.
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Data availability
The raw data associated with this study are available in https://figshare.com/s/1eadef6619e74a8f2904 (https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.21025615).
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Acknowledgements
We thank the researchers involved in the MUSGONET project for collection of field data. This study was supported by a 2019 Leonardo Grant for Researchers and Cultural Creators, BBVA Foundation (URBANFUN), and by BES Grant Agreement No. LRB17\1019 (MUSGONET). M.D-B., P.G-P., J.D. and A.R. acknowledge support from TED2021-130908B-C41/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/Unión Europea NextGenerationEU/PRTR. M.D.-B. also acknowledges support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation for the I + D + i project PID2020-115813RA-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. M.D.-B. was also supported by a project of the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) and the Consejería de Transformación Económica, Industria, Conocimiento y Universidades of the Junta de Andalucía (FEDER Andalucía 2014-2020 Objetivo temático ‘01 - Refuerzo de la investigación, el desarrollo tecnológico y la innovación’) associated with the research project P20_00879 (ANDABIOMA). D.J.E. was supported by the Hermon Slade Foundation. J.P.V. thanks the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) (EEQ/2021/001083, SIR/2022/000626) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST), India (DST/INT/SL/P-31/2021) and Banaras Hindu Univeristy-IoE (6031)-incentive grant for financial assistance for research in plant-microbe interaction and soil microbiome. J.D. and A. Rodríguez acknowledge support from the FCT (2020.03670.CEECIND and SFRH/BDP/108913/2015, respectively), as well as from the MCTES, FSE, UE and the CFE (UIDB/04004/2021) research unit financed by FCT/MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC).
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M.D.-B., P.G.-P., M.A.B. and C.P. conceptualized the project. M.D.-B., D.J.E., M.B., T.S.-S., Y.-R.L., F.A., S.A., A.R.B., F.B., J.L.B.-P., J.D., J.J.G., J.G.I., T.G., T.P.M., D.K.J., T.U.N., G.F.P.-B., A. Rey, A. Rodriguez, C.S., A.L.T., W.S., P.T., J.P.V., L.W., J.W., T.Y., E.Z., X.Z., X.-Q.Z. and C.P. developed the methodology. M.D.-B., P.G.-P., M.A.B., D.J.E., M.B., T.S.-S., Y.-R.L., F.A., S.A., A.R.B., F.B., J.L.B.-P., J.D., J.J.G., J.G.I., T.G., T.P.M., D.K.J., T.U.N., G.F.P.-B., A. Rey, A. Rodriguez, C.S., A.L.T., W.S., P.T., J.P.V., L.W., J.W., T.Y., E.Z., X.Z., X.-Q.Z. and C.P. conducted the investigation. M.D.-B., M.B. and C.P. performed visualization. M.D.-B., D.J.E., C.P. and J.P.V. acquired funding. M.D.-B. administered and supervised the project. M.D.-B., P.G.-P., M.A.B., C.P. and D.J.E. wrote the original draft. M.D.-B., P.G.-P., M.A.B., D.J.E., M.B., T.S.-S., Y.-R.L., F.A., S.A., A.R.B., F.B., J.L.B.-P., J.D., J.J.G., J.G.I., T.G., T.P.M., D.K.J., T.U.N., G.F.P.-B., A. Rey, A. Rodriguez, C.S., A.L.T., W.S., P.T., J.P.V., L.W., J.W., T.Y., E.Z., X.Z., X.-Q.Z. and C.P. reviewed and edited the paper.
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Delgado-Baquerizo, M., García-Palacios, P., Bradford, M.A. et al. Biogenic factors explain soil carbon in paired urban and natural ecosystems worldwide. Nat. Clim. Chang. 13, 450–455 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01646-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01646-z
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