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Chu-Jacoby, Ilexis Kao-Kniffin, Jenny Wickings, Kyle 2026-04-02T18:33:37Z 2026-04-02T18:33:37Z 2025-08 ProQuest Submission ID: 12550 ProQuest Publication ID: 32170605 https://hdl.handle.net/1813/120656 https://doi.org/10.7298/5ppd-xs29 17422645 62 pages Supplemental file(s) description: Document containing supplemental figures. Soil contamination is often addressed by constructing new compost-based soils for urban agriculture. We examined these constructed soils to assess soil health across a diversity of farming sites across New York City, consulting with farmers to characterize their soils as “healthy” or “unhealthy” based on agricultural productivity. We analyzed these soils using the Cornell Comprehensive Assessment for Soil Health (CASH), characterized the soil microbiome, and conducted a taxonomic analysis of the soil invertebrate community. We found that farmers’ perceptions of soil health predicted differences in the bacterial community across all farms. The soil variables that consistently correlated with the biological communities in this study were respiration, pH, and magnesium. Many other soil variables affected the bacterial, fungal, and invertebrate communities individually; farmer perceptions of soil health were predictive of active carbon, organic matter, and predicted soil protein. Overall CASH ranked all sites highly regardless of farmer perceptions, indicating that standard soil health assessments may not fully capture key differences relevant to management of urban soils. en Compost-based soil Microbiology Soil ecology Soil health Soil health assessment Urban Agriculture Disentangling Perceived and Measured Soil Health in New York City Urban Farms dissertation or thesis application/pdf Horticulture Cornell University Master of Science M.S., Horticulture https://hdl.handle.net/1813/59810.2 Publication Cornell Theses and Dissertations Chu-Jacoby, Ilexis 5893a6ea-7af3-41d7-abc6-04bcd26ab5df open.access open.access <Publication xmlns="https://www.openaire.eu/cerif-profile/1.1/" id="09413fcd-07e3-4cd1-bfd2-82c2a0b28f7d"> <Type xmlns="https://www.openaire.eu/cerif-profile/vocab/COAR_Publication_Types">http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_1843</Type> <Language>en</Language> <Title>Disentangling Perceived and Measured Soil Health in New York City Urban Farms</Title> <PublishedIn> <Publication> </Publication> </PublishedIn> <PublicationDate>2025-08</PublicationDate> <DOI>https://doi.org/10.7298/5ppd-xs29</DOI> <Authors> <Author> <DisplayName>Chu-Jacoby, Ilexis</DisplayName> <Affiliation> <OrgUnit> </OrgUnit> </Affiliation> </Author> </Authors> <Editors> </Editors> <Publishers> <Publisher> <OrgUnit /> </Publisher> </Publishers> <Keyword>Compost-based soil</Keyword> <Keyword>Microbiology</Keyword> <Keyword>Soil ecology</Keyword> <Keyword>Soil health</Keyword> <Keyword>Soil health assessment</Keyword> <Keyword>Urban Agriculture</Keyword> <Abstract>Soil contamination is often addressed by constructing new compost-based soils for urban agriculture. We examined these constructed soils to assess soil health across a diversity of farming sites across New York City, consulting with farmers to characterize their soils as “healthy” or “unhealthy” based on agricultural productivity. We analyzed these soils using the Cornell Comprehensive Assessment for Soil Health (CASH), characterized the soil microbiome, and conducted a taxonomic analysis of the soil invertebrate community. We found that farmers’ perceptions of soil health predicted differences in the bacterial community across all farms. The soil variables that consistently correlated with the biological communities in this study were respiration, pH, and magnesium. Many other soil variables affected the bacterial, fungal, and invertebrate communities individually; farmer perceptions of soil health were predictive of active carbon, organic matter, and predicted soil protein. Overall CASH ranked all sites highly regardless of farmer perceptions, indicating that standard soil health assessments may not fully capture key differences relevant to management of urban soils.</Abstract> <Access xmlns="http://purl.org/coar/access_right" > </Access> </Publication>