Urban Farm DB
Research catalogue
Database research record2017·United States (California central coast)

Creating Socioecological Novelty in Urban Agroecosystems from the Ground Up

Monika Egerer, Alessandro Ossola, Brenda B. Lin

BioScience

Urban Farm DB summary

This study conceptualizes community garden soils within the novel ecosystem framework, arguing that gardeners cultivate novel agroecosystems from their garden beds' soil. On the California central coast, community garden soils may not be influenced by land-use legacies associated with geographic location. Instead, intensive soil reworking by gardeners can wash out legacy signals and decadal chronological trends, leading to soil homogenization that reduces biophysical ties to the underlying earth.