The upper layer of forest soils (0-20 cm depth) were collected from urban, suburban, and rural areas in the Pearl River Delta of Southern China to estimate the distribution and the possible sources of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Total concentrations of PAHs in the forest soils decreased significantly along the urban-suburban-rural gradient, indicating the influence of anthropogenic...

This study aimed at relating the abundance and diversity of invertebrate communities of urban soils to chemical and physical soil characteristics and to identify the taxa most sensitive or tolerant to soil stressors. The invertebrate community of five urban soils in Naples, Italy, was sampled. To assess soil quality invertebrate community indices (Shannon, Simpson, Menhinick and Pielou indices)...

The urban environment quality is of vital importance as the majority of people now live in cities. Due to the continuous urbanisation and industrialisation in many parts of the world, metals are continuously emitted into the terrestrial environment and pose a great threat on human health. An extensive survey was conducted in the highly urbanised and commercialised Hong Kong Island area (80.3 km...

Urban green spaces provide ecosystem properties fundamental to the provision of ecosystem services, such as the sequestration of carbon and nutrients and serving as a reservoir for organic matter. Although, urban vegetation influences soil physico-chemical properties, it remains unknown whether ecosystem properties depend on plant species portfolios. We tested the influence of three common func...

Background, Aims, and Scope. Historically, built areas were ignored in soil mapping and in studies of soil formation and behaviour. It is now recognized that these areas, and therefore their soils, are of prime importance to human populations. Another trend is the large increase in reclaimed lands and new uses for old industrial areas. In several countries there are active projects to map such ...

This investigation was performed to provide heavy metal signatures of urban soils, dusts, rainwater and to evaluate potential sources in Arak, Markazi Province. Thirty-one samples of urban soils, 29 dust and16 rainwater samples were collected in Arak city. Then, Pb, Cu, Zn, As and Ni concentrations were determined by using atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Application of discriminant analysi...

Urban soils provide an array of ecosystem services to inhabitants of cities and towns. Urbanization affects soils and their capacity to provide ecosystem services directly through disturbance and management (e.g., irrigation) and indirectly through changes in the environment (e.g., heat island effect and pollution). Both direct and indirect effects contribute to form a mosaic of soil conditions...

Urbanization is widely presumed to degrade ecosystem services, but empirical evidence is now challenging these assumptions. We report the first city-wide organic carbon (OC) budget for vegetation and soils, including under impervious surfaces. Urban soil OC storage was significantly greater than in regional agricultural land at equivalent soil depths, however there was no significant difference...

In order to evaluate the current state of the environmental quality of soils in Beijing, we investigated contents of 14 metals in Beijing urban soils inside the 5th ring road by even grids sampling. Statistic analyses were conducted to identify possible heavy metal pollutants, as well as the effects of land uses on their accumulation. Our results revealed that the urban soils in Beijing were co...