Evolution of Fauna Communities on Newly Installed Rooftop Gardens
Résumé
Over the past ten years, urban agriculture has developed considerably around the world. The increasing urban population and the demand for fresh local produce are among the drivers of this trend. Rooftop gardens, developed on Technosols, are one of the urban agriculture forms that are rapidly expanding. Soils, which are at the heart of the functioning of these rooftop gardens, are likely to provide a wide range of ecosystem services to the city, other than food production, although these services are not really evaluated. Our project aims to conduct a combined study of the evolution over time of soil quality, percolating water and biodiversity. Here we will focus on the study of soil biodiversity.
Method: The monitoring was carried out the first year following the installation of three Technosols with varying levels of organic matter. Samples of the macrofauna, mesofauna and microfauna were collected once a month for one year between May 2021 and May 2022.
Results: A change in soil fauna density was observed, with a strong increase in the density of mesofauna and microfauna during the first few months of Technosols installation. A change in macrofaunal community composition was also observed between the beginning and end of the experiment. Although some results remain to be analysed, no differences are currently observed between the three modalities.
Conclusions: A fast dynamic of the faunal communities was observed during the first year of Technosols installation. These results will also be compared to all the other measurements carried out.