B4-A - Healthy Soils Support Healthy Trees – The Amazing Soils Genomics - 2hr lunch and learn

Urban forests are vital to our urban ecosystems. Landscape architects understand the benefits trees provide, with a large canopy reducing the urban heat island effect. Tree canopy can also enhance residents’ overall health and quality of life. However, urban forests face various challenges, including soil degradation, pollution, invasive pests, and changing climate. Most soils in developed sites have organic matter depletion and compaction.  

Soil Genomics is a fascinating field that explores how microbes in the soil affect the health and growth of plants and trees. Through testing, analysis, and organic treatments,  soil genomics can address these challenges by better understanding the composition and function of the soil microbial communities and how they respond to environmental stressors such as pollution and changing climate. It is like a DNA test, but for soil. This knowledge can be used to develop more effective strategies for managing soil health in urban forests, such as promoting the growth of beneficial microorganisms, and exopolysaccharides (EPS),  and improving soil structure and nutrient availability.  

The goal of community trees is to generate a large canopy that improves air quality, shades and reduces temperatures, improves public health, and larger trees sequester more carbon.  

This presentation shares cutting-edge knowledge and technologies to the community forestry supporters to improve how we grow trees for the long term where the benefits are realized from mature tree canopies. The treatments to improve soil biomes and microbials are usually very affordable and build the soil components to self-regulate their ability to grow better trees.

Learning Objectives:

• Discuss why trees are essential to people and how people change the environment for trees. 

• Learn what makes native environments best for trees when there is no human being involved. Then discuss the stresses near the built environment, such as soil/water/air interactions, soil compaction, deicing salt, over-and under-watering, pollutants, chemicals, and temperature (heat island effect).

• Learn what is soil genomics, how can it reveal the secrets of healthy urban forests, and what landscape architects can do to reverse the negative trend of soil microbiome and boost the soil microbiome and the underground microbial community that will ensure the success of urban forests.

This is a workshop with goals to introduce soil genomics to landscape architects and teach how to specify soil microbiome to restore the built environment to as close as possible to the natural environments so they can thrive and provide the benefits for human being. We use lecture, break-out group discussions, and show-and-tell examples and case studies across the United States to get the audience engaged.