Plant communities and soil characteristics of Baltimore’s public lawns

Abstract Managed public lawns are a widespread landcover type in cities and account for a significant proportion of urban greenspaces and habitat for urban plants, but their ecological significance is often overlooked. Investigations of the factors driving plant community composition in public lawns are necessary to better manage these greenspaces. We assessed 30 managed public lawns in three land use types—parks, road verges, and street medians—within Baltimore City, MD and quantified differences in soil characteristics, abundance of arbuscular mycorrhizal associations, rhizobial communities, and plant community composition. Although land use types were distinguishable by soil chemical concentrations and bulk densities, differences in soil conditions were not reflected in the plant communities. We found 82 different plant species across all three land use types. However, plant species richness, evenness, and composition were similar across land use types despite varying management regimes carried out by a variety of actors, including the Dept. of Parks and Recreation and the Dept. of Transportation. Additionally, areas of overall high and low heavy metal and salt stress also hosted similar plant community compositions and were dominated by turfgrasses and nitrogen fixing plants. The overall high diversity yet homogeneity across these land use types supports the notion that public lawns are often overlooked reservoirs of plant diversity that are resilient to different soil and biotic conditions.