Organic Amendments Differently Tackle the Stochastic Assembly Rules of Urban Vegetation Communities

Submission 36

Poster-13

Presented by: Vincenzo Baldi

Angela Cicatelli ^{1, 2}, Vincenzo Baldi ^{1, 2}, Annamaria Di Serio ^{1, 2, 3}

¹ Department of Chemistry and Biology “Adolfo Zambelli”, University of Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II, 132, Fisciano, 84084 Salerno, Italy

² National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC), Piazza Marina, 61, 90133 Palermo, Italy

³ Department Pharmacy, University of Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II 132, 84084 Fisciano, Italy

Fertility recovery via organic amendments in urban soils can enhance community biodiversity and ecosystem functionality, potentially mitigating environmental filtering which induces the shift from niche-based communities to stochastic based community assemblies, likely the result of urban spatio-temporal heterogeneity. However, the specific contribution of different amendants to this process remains poorly understood. With a view to propose a sustainable management of urban green areas, we focused on the structural and functional complexities of herbaceous communities through the application of different amendants (biochar, vermicompost, vermicompost+biochar) in respect to mineral fertilizers and non-fertilized soils. The study was carried out in two urban areas in the Campania region (Southern Italy) subjected to different management strategies. Specifically, we investigated vegetation community at the structural level by identifying each species and evaluating its abundance (cover, dry mass, counts) and on a wide spectrum of functional traits, either literature-derived (biological forms, chorotype, etc.) or measured (chlorophylls, anthocyanins, etc.). Results showed significant changes of vegetation community biodiversity induced by amendments, considering the overall community abundance and at the functional level, but not at the structural level. Vermicompost and its combination with biochar represented the most promising treatments, whose effects were especially relevant in time and strongly site dependent. Findings highlight potential long-term effects of organic amendants in successfully countering urban environmental filtering by increasing functional community complexity.

This study was funded by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), Mission 4 Component 2 Investment 1.4—Call for tender No. 3138 of 16 December 2021, rectified by Decree n. 3175 of 18 December 2021 of the Italian Ministry of University and Research funded by the European Union—NextGenerationEU; Award Number: Project code CN_00000033, Concession Decree No. 1034 of 17 June 2022 adopted by the Italian Ministry of University and Research, CUP, H43C22000530001 Project title “National Biodiversity Future Center—NBFC”.

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