2019 ASHS Annual Conference

Urban grasslands, turfgrass ecosystems kept for recreational or aesthetic purposes, are ubiquitous features of towns and cities across the United States. Though widespread, there remains much to be understood about how establishing urban grasslands and their continual management affects the soil microbiome, and in turn, how other belowground processes may be altered. An overview and the results of two studies will be discussed. Using experimental mesocosms, it was demonstrated that with increasing turfgrass diversity, a corresponding increase in soil microbial diversity was observed. In a subsequent experiment conducted in Baltimore County, MD, residential lawns developed on formerly forested sites showed distinct patterns of soil microbiome compositional shifts relative to reference forest soils, while lawns developed on former agricultural sites showed no discernable effect. The soil microbiome composition was correlated with soil pH and fertility. These insights into controls on the urban soil microbiome suggest both management effects and complex relationships with land-use legacy that alter microbiome composition and may impact microbiome function.