Study shows the hidden biodiversity in urban greenspaces
The study published in "Science Advances" describes the biodiversity of parks and gardens in 56 cities across the globe.
Abridged version in English by Diana Taborda
A study published in "Science Advances" describes the biodiversity of parks and gardens in 56 cities across the globe.
The study, carried out by researchers Jorge Durán and Alexandra Rodríguez from the Centre of Functional Ecology of the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Coimbra (FCTUC), describes for the first time the soil microbiome of urban green spaces in several countries, from large cities such as Beijing (China) or Cape Town (South Africa) to smaller cities such as Coimbra (Portugal) or Alice Springs (Australia).
The scientific article shows that green spaces in urban areas are important hotspots for microbial diversity.
Urban green spaces, such as parks and residential gardens, are vital for promoting mental and physical wellbeing and reducing human morbidity and mortality, as well as being an important site for plant and animal biodiversity and a link between the natural ecosystems of different cities. Urban green spaces are of vital importance to human well-being, as they are often the only contact that people have with nature.
The study also shows that urban green spaces have higher levels of plant and fungal pathogens and lower levels of symbiotic microbes compared to natural ecosystems. These urban ecosystems also showed higher proportions of genes associated with human pathogens, greenhouse gas emissions, faster nutrient cycling and more intense abiotic stress than natural environments.
Socio-economic and climatic factors can influence the microbes that inhabit our parks, and more densely populated cities have higher levels of key antibiotic resistance genes, while warmer cities have higher levels of plant pathogenic fungi.
This global collaboration, in which researchers from dozens of institutions collected soil samples from 112 sites (56 urban and 56 paired natural ecosystems) in 17 countries, provides the first list of species of archaea, bacteria, fungi and protists that inhabit our parks.
The scientific paper is available here.