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Vegetation type mediates how urbanization reshapes the structure, function, and spatial variation of soil food webs

Yao, Haifeng1; Li, Zhipeng1; Zhang, Saichao1; Hu, Shasha1; Shangguan, Huayuan1; Sun, Xin1; Potapov, Anton2

Published Jan 28, 2026 on Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.j3tx95xs3

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Abstract

Urbanization represents one of the major anthropogenic alterations of the Earth's surface, with significant impacts on biodiversity and its functions. Soil animals are essential components of biodiversity, playing integral roles in terrestrial ecosystems. How urbanization reshapes soil food webs and affects their function and stability is largely unknown. We assessed the structure and function of soil food webs using stable isotope analysis and the energy flux approach in urban grasslands and woodlands in a subtropical city in China, using natural ecosystems with the same vegetation type as the reference. In urban woodlands, total biomass was 6 times higher, and energy flux was 2 times higher than in the reference natural forests, resulting in a 50 % lower energy turnover (energy flux to biomass ratio), and supporting longer food chains. By contrast, urban grasslands had similar total biomass, total energy flux, and turnover to wild grasslands, but both the bacterial-to-fungal ratio and soil consumption-to-feces production ratio increased, suggesting accelerated soil carbon cycling. Further, we found that urbanization reduced the stability of trophic connections between food-web nodes (i.e., increased variation in trophic interaction strengths), especially in woodlands, probably related to the strong specific predator-prey interactions and higher environmental heterogeneity of urban green spaces. Overall, against the generally assumed negative impacts of land-use changes on soil communities, our study demonstrates that urbanization enhances energy flux in soil food webs but increases the risk of declining energy flux balance between different channels and trophic interaction stability. In addition, the divergent responses to urbanization between different vegetation emphasize the importance of vegetation-specific management to improve soil ecosystem functioning (such as C sequestration).