We thank the researchers involved in the MUSGONET project for collection of field data and soil samples. This study was supported by a 2019 Leonardo Grant for Researchers and Cultural Creators, BBVA Foundation (URBANFUN), and by the BES grant agreement No LRB17\1019 (MUSGONET). M.D-B. acknowledges support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation for the I + D + i project PID2020-115813RA-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. M.D-B. is also supported by a project of the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) and the Consejería de Transformación Económica, Industria, Conocimiento y Universidades of the Junta de Andalucía (FEDER Andalucía 2014−2020 Objetivo temático “01 - Refuerzo de la investigación, el desarrollo tecnológico y la innovación”) associated with the research project P20_00879 (ANDABIOMA). D.J.E. is supported by the Hermon Slade Foundation (HSF21040). H.C. is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32101335), and The Young Science and Technology Talent Support Project of Jilin Province (QT202226), J.D. is supported by Young Elite Scientists Sponsorship Program by BAST (No. BYESS2023456) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, and M.B. by a Ramón y Cajal grant (RYC2021-031797-I) from Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. F.A. acknowledges support from FONDECYT 1220358 and C.P. support from the EU’s H2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101000224. A.R. acknowledges support from the FCT (SFRH/BDP/108913/2015), the MCTES, FSE, UE, and the CFE (UIDB/04004/2021) research unit financed by FCT/MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC). S.A. thanks the ANID/FONDECYT 1170995 and the ANID ACT 192027. T.P.M. acknowledges funding from the National Research Foundation of South Africa (UID 118981). T.G. and T.U.N. were supported by the research projects J4-3098 and J4-4547, and by the Research Program in Forest Biology, Ecology, and Technology (P4-0107) of the Slovenian Research Agency. J.P.V. thanks the SERB (EEQ/2021/001083, SIR/2022/000626), DST (DST/INT/SL/P-31/2021) and Banaras Hindu University, IoE (6031) incentives grant for providing support for Phytomicrobiome and soil microbiome research. L.W. and J.W. were supported by the Program for Introducing Talents to Universities (B16011), and the Ministry of Education Innovation Team Development Plan (2013-373).

Greenspaces are important for sustaining healthy urban environments and their human populations. Yet their capacity to support multiple ecosystem services simultaneously (multiservices) compared with nearby natural ecosystems remains virtually unknown. We conducted a global field survey in 56 urban areas to investigate the influence of urban greenspaces on 23 soil and plant attributes and compared them with nearby natural environments. We show that, in general, urban greenspaces and nearby natural areas support similar levels of soil multiservices, with only six of 23 attributes (available phosphorus, water holding capacity, water respiration, plant cover, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), and arachnid richness) significantly greater in greenspaces, and one (available ammonium) greater in natural areas. Further analyses showed that, although natural areas and urban greenspaces delivered a similar number of services at low (>25% threshold) and moderate (>50%) levels of functioning, natural systems supported significantly more functions at high (>75%) levels of functioning. Management practices (mowing) played an important role in explaining urban ecosystem services, but there were no effects of fertilisation or irrigation. Some services declined with increasing site size, for both greenspaces and natural areas. Our work highlights the fact that urban greenspaces are more similar to natural environments than previously reported and underscores the importance of managing urban greenspaces not only for their social and recreational values, but for supporting multiple ecosystem services on which soils and human well-being depends.

9 páginas.- 5 figuras.- 53 referencias.- Supplementary information The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1038/s42949-024-00154-z

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