Abstract
ABSTRACTSoils are the foundation for cultivating ecosystem services in urban agriculture. Yet, variations in socio-environment characteristics of urbanization leads to variable soil properties and unequal distribution of ecosystem services like soil fertility. Thus, examining relationships among biophysical features and social dimensions of urban agricultural systems is necessary to understand soil functioning variation and to develop urban agricultural systems that promote equitable ecosystem service provisioning. In 25 urban community gardens in California, we examined two links between soil properties and neighborhood socio-demographics: (1) how groundcover management affects soil properties; and (2) how socio-demographics (and in particular, social advantage) can affect groundcover management and soil properties. We found that mulch groundcover improves soil fertility and water holding capacity in gardens, and that socio-demographic factors may affect people’s access to mulch to affect soil properties: neighborhoods with measures of higher mobility (e.g., greater vehicle availability), but measures of poorer public/environmental health (e.g., poorer health care access) had more soil organic matter, higher soil nutrient content, and greater water holding capacity. However, we found indicators of high functioning soils in the absence of mulch, indicating that other factors like social networks and organizational support may be important for urban agricultural ecosystem services.
Highlights
Urbanization significantly alters soil and hydrological systems, their functioning, and the ecosystem services that they provide in cityscapes (Effland and Pouyat 1997; Shuster et al 2005; Pickett and Cadenasso 2009)
We investigated how garden soil biophysical properties that are indicators of urban soil functioning (Schindelbeck et al 2008) vary with socio-demographic characteristics of the neighborhoods in which the gardens are embedded, and how relationships among soil properties and socio-demographics may affect soilbased ecosystem service provisioning
We considered high functioning urban agricultural soils to have high organic matter, low bulk density, high soil nutrient contents, and high water holding capacity
Summary
Urbanization significantly alters soil and hydrological systems, their functioning, and the ecosystem services that they provide in cityscapes (Effland and Pouyat 1997; Shuster et al 2005; Pickett and Cadenasso 2009). Urban soils often differ from undisturbed natural or agricultural soils, and can be characterized by low organic matter content, high levels of compaction, and the presence of physical and chemical contaminants (Pouyat et al 2010). These biophysical properties of urban soils are challenging for people converting urban land for agricultural purposes due to poor soil structure (impeding crop growth), heavy metal contamination (hindering safe food cultivation), low nutrient content, and poor water retention (demanding more resources) (Beniston and Lal 2012). Urban land-use planning and resource availability (e.g., water, soil, and tools) can lead to
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