Urban soil microbiome: Activity, diversity and functioning

Urbanization coincides with direct and indirect anthropogenic impacts on soil health resulting in remarkable changes in diversity and functionality of soil microbiome. Soil sealing, pollution or salinization deplete soil microbial biomass and hamper microbial activity. Development of urban green infrastructures including constructing Technosols, introduction of new vegetation species, management and maintenance practices create favorable conditions for soil microbiome. Microbial indicators are very informative for urban soil monitoring and assessment since they reflect complex and diverse processes occurring in soil life phase in urban environment. Soil microbiome is sensitive to anthropogenic stressors, and dynamics in microbial properties is widely used to monitor anthropogenic and technogenic alteration of urban ecosystems. At the same time, ecosystem adaptation to these stresses is driven by mutual interactions and co-adaptation between soil microbiome and urban vegetation. This chapter reviews diversity of urban soils’ microbial properties and explores climatic conditions, typology and composition of green infrastructures, management and maintenance as the driving factors behind microbial variability and functionality in urban soils.