Urban greening with biodiverse perennial meadows improves ecosystem services in human dominated landscapes

In urban landscapes, diverse perennial native meadows have widely been proposed as alternatives to traditional lawns, offering multiple ecosystem services. However, their comparative value for sustainable ecosystem services remains poorly understood. Using multiyear systematic field sampling, we compared plant species richness, soil nutrients, microbial functional groups, and trace metals between urban lawns and meadows. Results showed higher plant species diversity in meadows, which enhances biodiversity conservation by providing improved habitats and resources for urban wildlife. Lawns showed higher soil organic matter, total carbon (C), and nitrogen (N), suggesting carbon sequestration potential. However, meadow soils had higher carbon-to-nitrogen ratios and lower plant available N, implying efficient N utilization and potential for reduced leaching into groundwater. Additionally, meadows contained lower plant available phosphorus, potassium, and certain trace metals, demonstrating their ability to reduce the pollutants from leaching into the ground or surface water. Moreover, meadows showed higher mycorrhizal fungi abundance and fungal-to-bacterial ratios, indicating enhanced soil health potential (e.g., nutrient cycling and soil structure). Overall, urban lawns can sequester greenhouse gases, while meadows support biodiversity, may act as natural filters for excessive nutrients and pollutants, and improve soil health. Our findings provide some evidence that scaling up urban meadows as a multifunctional green infrastructure strategy may preserve biodiversity and maximize ecological and environmental benefits. • Urban meadows exhibited higher plant species richness and diversity than lawns, providing diverse habitats for urban wildlife and enhancing biodiversity. • Meadows showed higher carbon-to-nitrogen ratios, lower available N, P, trace metals, and higher arbuscular mycorrhizae (AMF) abundance. • Lawns had higher SOM, C, and N, illustrating their role in greenhouse gas sequestration. • Managing a mosaic of lawns and meadows can enhance multiple ecosystem services with balanced biodiversity and soil health in urban landscapes.