Variables affecting the diversity of soil organisms in green areas of the city of Donostia-San Sebastián

Abstract

Epelde, L., Salazar, O., Martín, I., Garbisu, C. 2020. Variables affecting the diversity of soil organisms in green areas of the city of Donostia-San Sebastián. Ecosistemas 29(1):1881. https://doi.org/10.7818/ECOS.1881

Urban green areas are suitable habitats for conserving soil biodiversity. The biota of urban soil performs a set of functions and associated ecosystem services of enormous importance. Unfortunately, the knowledge we currently have about soil organisms in urban environments is still very limited. The aim of this study was to identify those abiotic and biotic variables that have the greatest influence on the soil biodiversity of urban green areas. To this aim, thirty-eight urban green areas with different sizes, level of isolation (i.e., habitat fragmentation), soil physicochemical properties and type of vegetation were sampled in the city of Donostia-San Sebastián (Spain) to measure the diversity and composition of macrofauna, mesofauna and microorganisms (i.e., bacterial communities). Variables related to the soil carbon content and habitat fragmentation significantly explained the diversity and composition of soil organisms in the studied urban green areas. Even so, the percentage of the variance explained by these two variables was very low. Understanding the ecological processes in urban environments will be helpful for the design and management of urban green areas to promote conservation of the biodiversity of multiple taxonomic groups in urban soil.