摘要：Soils are the foundation for cultivating ecosystem services in urban agriculture. Yet, variations insocio-environment characteristics of urbanization leads to variable soil properties and unequaldistribution of ecosystem services like soil fertility. Thus, examining relationships among biophysical features and social dimensions of urban agricultural systems is necessary to understand soilfunctioning variation and to develop urban agricultural systems that promote equitable ecosystem service provisioning. In 25 urban community gardens in California, we examined two linksbetween 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 groundcoverimproves soil fertility and water holding capacity in gardens, and that socio-demographic factorsmay affect people’s access to mulch to affect soil properties: neighborhoods with measures ofhigher mobility (e.g., greater vehicle availability), but measures of poorer public/environmentalhealth (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 theabsence of mulch, indicating that other factors like social networks and organizational supportmay be important for urban agricultural ecosystem services.
