Global homogenization of the structure and function in the soil microbiome of urban greenspaces
Manuel Delgado‐Baquerizo, David J. Eldridge, Yu‐Rong Liu, Blessing Sokoya, Juntao Wang, Hang‐Wei Hu, Ji‐Zheng He, Felipe Bastida, José L. Moreno, Adebola R. Bamigboye, José Luis Blanco‐Pastor, Concha Cano‐Díaz, Javier Gutiérrez Illán, Thulani P. Makhalanyane, Christina Siebe, Pankaj Trivedi, Eli Zaady, Jay Prakash Verma, Ling Wang, Jianyong Wang, Tine Grebenc, Gabriel F. Peñaloza‐Bojacá, Tina Unuk Nahberger, Alberto L. Teixido, Xinquan Zhou, Miguel Berdugo, Jorge Durán, Alexandra Rodríguez, Xiaobing Zhou, Fernando D. Alfaro, Sebastián Abades, César Plaza, Ana Rey, Brajesh K. Singh, Leho Tedersoo, Noah Fierer
Abstract
The structure and function of the soil microbiome of urban greenspaces remain largely undetermined. We conducted a global field survey in urban greenspaces and neighboring natural ecosystems across 56 cities from six continents, and found that urban soils are important hotspots for soil bacterial, protist and functional gene diversity, but support highly homogenized microbial communities worldwide. Urban greenspaces had a greater proportion of fast-growing bacteria, algae, amoebae, and fungal pathogens, but a lower proportion of ectomycorrhizal fungi than 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. City affluence, management practices, and climate were fundamental drivers of urban soil communities. Our work paves the way toward a more comprehensive global-scale perspective on urban greenspaces, which is integral to managing the health of these ecosystems and the well-being of human populations.