Abstract
Globally soils harbour a significant diversity and abundance of organisms, ranging in size from nanometre- and micrometre-sized bacteria and archaea, to larger soil fauna such as mites, springtails, ants and earthworms. Together these organisms are responsible for a significant proportion of the ecosystem services provided by soils. Urban soils are a growing proportion of the global soil atlas, and thus it is critical that we understand key dynamics that sustain urban ecosystems. Urban soils can be highly variable in terms of the degree to which they have been influenced by anthropogenic activities; each of these differing urban soil types has its own unique challenges and thus differing impacts on the types of organisms present and the functions they perform. In this chapter we discuss different types of urban soil environments and provide an overview of the diversity of organisms present with a focus on how features of urban soils impact on soil biological diversity. We include an overview of the different methods available to measure soil organisms as well as an insight into which soil organisms may benefit human health and well-being in the long term.
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Bridget Gleeson, D. (2022). Soil Biological Processes in Urban Soils. In: Rate, A.W. (eds) Urban Soils. Progress in Soil Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87316-5_8
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