Industrial development as a key factor explaining variances in soil and grass phyllosphere microbiomes in urban green spaces

Abstract

Microbiota in urban green spaces underpin ecosystem services that are essential to environmental health and human wellbeing. However, the factors shaping the microbial communities in urban green spaces, especially those associated with turf grass phyllosphere, remain poorly understood. The lack of this knowledge greatly limits our ability to assess ecological, social and recreational benefits of urban green spaces in the context of global urbanization. In this study, we used amplicon sequencing to characterize soil and grass phyllosphere bacterial communities in 40 urban green spaces and three minimally disturbed national parks in Victoria, Australia. The results indicated that urbanization ..