Harnessing Soil Microbiomes for Creating Healthy and Functional Urban Landscapes

Urban soil microbiomes are attractive interventional targets for creating healthy and functional urban landscapes. In this chapter, we introduce molecular meta-omics techniques that can be used to study the composition and functioning of such microbiomes in a high-throughput and culture-independent manner. We highlight studies in which such approaches have been applied to soil microbiomes in both natural and managed ecosystems. We then discuss how data from such approaches can be interpreted using ecological frameworks and discuss how such information can in turn be used to develop sustainable solutions for managing urban landscapes and increasing the productivity of urban agroecosystems.