Metabarcoding reveals a high diversity of woody host-associated spp. in soils at public gardens and amenity woodlands in Britain.

Forests and woodlands worldwide are being severely impacted by invasive species, with initial outbreaks in some cases occurring on host trees located in public parks and gardens. These highly disturbed sites with diverse planting practices may indeed act as harbours for invasive pathogens which are particularly well adapted to surviving in soil. High throughput Illumina sequencing was used to analyse species diversity in soil samples collected from 14 public garden/amenity woodland sites in northern Britain.