Successional stages in Mediterranean grasslands differ in the quality of ecosystem services in urban greenspaces

• Published in: Global ecology and conservation 2024-10, Vol.54, p.e03118, Article e03118
• Main Authors: Quintana, José Ramón, Fernández-Sanjulián, Javier, González-Ubierna, Sergio, Casermeiro, Miguel Ángel, Torija, Miriam G., Alía, Teresa, Vázquez de la Cueva, Antonio, Molina, José Antonio
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Mediterranean city; Plant diversity; Ruderal grasslands; Soil organic matter; Soil water regulation
• ISSN: 2351-9894; 2351-9894
• DOI: 10.1016/j.gecco.2024.e03118

Urban habitats represent new opportunities to study natural processes such as ecological succession. Our work focused for the first time on the changes in ecosystem services occurring in the ecological succession from annual to perennial grasslands in Mediterranean peri-urban greenspaces. Student’s t test was used to analyse the influence of the grassland type on plant and soil features, and showed that soil under perennial grassland had a significantly higher C content and arylamidase and arylsulfatase activity than annual grasslands. In contrast, annual grasslands showed a significantly higher plant-species richness, and their soils had higher bulk density and phenoloxidase and arylamidase activity compared to perennial grasslands. Neither the labile nor recalcitrant fractions of the organic matter showed any significant difference between communities. When all the soil factors were included together, Redundancy Analysis revealed a significant gradient in soil phenoloxidase activity and organic matter distinguishing perennial from annual grasslands. We conclude that when annual grasslands give way to perennial grasslands through natural succession in Mediterranean greenspaces, certain ecosystem services such as soil carbon storage and water regulation improve, while biodiversity maintenance declines. Thus, Mediterranean urban greenspaces where natural succession occurs should be handled in such a way as to preserve both type of habitats in order to improve a wider range of ecosystem services. [Display omitted] •Mediterranean urban greenspaces host successional stages in spontaneous grasslands.•Early successional stages of annual grasslands support a higher number of species.•Late-successional perennial grasslands improve water regulation and carbon storage.•Natural succession improves ecosystem services in Mediterranean urban greenspaces.