Urban Soils and Landscape Plantings.

The majority of urban land that is not paved or forested is allocated to landscape plantings, whether these are parks, street medians, or residential or commercial landscapes. The ecosystem services generated by these landscapes are strongly influenced by disturbance history and subsequent soil management. We will focus on three soil ecosystem services: carbon sequestration, runoff mitigation, and facilitating biodiversity in vegetation. We will highlight current research showing response of these services to urbanization and subsequent changes in soil characteristics over time. This presentation will examine current development and soil management trends and their impacts on urban landscape soil ecosystem services as well as the potential for increasing urban ecosystem services through new soil management approaches.