BISES Project – Urban Soil Biodiversity and Sustainable Cities

This dataset, collected in 2021 as part of the BISES project (BIodiversity of Urban Soils and Sustainable CitiES), documents soil biodiversity and soil characteristics along an urbanization gradient.The aim of the project is to better understand the structure and functioning of soil communities in urban, peri-urban and rural environments, and their relationships with local environmental conditions.Sampling was conducted across a network of sites representative of different urban land uses, including green spaces, roadsides, community gardens, wastelands and peri-urban agricultural areas.Standardized protocols were used to collect multiple biological compartments of soil biodiversity:Collembola: sampled through soil coring and extraction, identified at species or genus level.Ants: collected using Barber pitfall traps and identified to species level.Other soil mesofauna: arthropods captured in the same trapping devices and grouped into higher taxonomic categories.Nematodes: extracted from soil samples and identified at family or genus level.Additional microbiological indicators and physico-chemical soil parameters were measured on the same samples but are not included in this dataset.This dataset contributes to understanding how urbanization influences soil biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.