Université de Fribourg

Litter decomposition driven by soil fauna, plant diversity and soil management in urban gardens

Tresch, Simon ; Frey, David ; Le Bayon, Renée-Claire ; Zanettac, Andrea ; Rasche, Frank ; Fliessbach, Andreas ; Moretti, Marco

In: Science of The Total Environment, 2019, vol. 658, p. 1614–1629

In the face of growing urban densification, green spaces in cities, such as gardens, are increasingly important for biodiversity and ecosystem services. However, the influences of urban green space management on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (BEF) relationships is poorly understood. We investigated the relationship between soil fauna and litter decomposition in 170 urban garden sites...

Université de Fribourg

A gardener’s influence on urban soil quality

Tresch, Simon ; Moretti, Marco ; Le Bayon, Renée-Claire ; Mäder, Paul ; Zanetta, Andrea ; Frey, David ; Fliessbach, Andreas

In: Frontiers in Environmental Science, 2018, vol. 6, p. -

Gardens are hot spots for urban biodiversity and provide habitats for many plant and animal species, both above- and below-ground. Furthermore, gardens provide a wide range of ecosystem services, including carbon (C) storage and nutrient cycling. Although the soil is the foundation of sustainable gardens providing those ecosystem services, very little is known about the consequences of garden...