Environmental quality assessment of soil as a component of green spaces in parks of the megalopolis

Abstract

Intensive land degradation occurs under conditions of accelerated urbanization; it is strongly associated with the loss of soil natural capital, primarily animals, plant cover, and biological diversity in general. The creation and functioning of parks, in particular green spaces, in the urbanized areas is an effective mechanism for optimizing the ecological situation within the cities and preventing desertification. The soils of parks are an integral component of green infrastructure; they determine the conditions for the growth and development of both individual plants and green spaces as a whole. The soil buffering capacity actively participates in the mechanisms of implementation of the development and stabilization of soil fertility potentials. The buffering capacity determines the proportion of the soil potential that controls the processes of immobilization (deposition) and mobilization (release, loss) of a particular element of fertility: first of all, mineral nutrients for plant growth, productive moisture, thermal energy in soil, gas composition of soil air, and acidity. We collected soil samples beneath the crowns of trees growing in the territory of the Taras Shevchenko Central Culture and Leisure Park, as one of the largest parks in the city of Dnipro (Ukraine). The soil samples were collected in order to assess the soil acid-base (pH) buffering capacity (pHBC) and determine the direction of microbiological processes in urban soils of the park area afforested with stands from such introduced tree species as green ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica), black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia), northern red oak (Quercus rubra), tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissima), Kentucky coffee tree (Gymnocladus dioica), and box elder (Acer negundo). The acid-base buffering capacity of the urban soil was determined using the Arrhenius method and estimated according to the buffering area within the acid-base range, calculated using the Simpson formula. Direction of microbial processes in the soil was determined according to the indexes of mineralization-immobilization, pedotrophicity, and oligotrophicity. The output was processed using statistical methods (arithmetic mean and standard deviation were calculated; the difference in the means was found according to the Tukey’s comparison test; interdependencies were determined by linear correlation). We have found significant, strong positive correlations between the pH level of urban soils in the rhizosphere area of the introduced species of park dendroflora and the buffering area within the acid and acid-base (total) range of external influence, as well as a strong negative correlation between pH and buffering area in the alkaline range of external influence. We identified weak mineralization signs according to the ratio of functional groups of microbiota in the studied sites forested with Fraxinus pennsylvanica and Acer negundo.