Wealth does not buy richness: Plant and soil bacterial diversity in temperate suburban lawns are not influenced by income

Patterns of biodiversity in urban and suburban areas have been increasingly linked to the behaviors and affluence of their residents. Residents of affluent neighborhoods tend to plant more flowering plant species and generally benefit from cooler temperatures and more tree cover. These factors, among others, lead to increased plant, bird, arthropod, and lizard biodiversity in affluent neighborhoods. This dataset pertains to an investigation of this pattern in plant and soil bacterial communities in suburban lawns in Raleigh, North Carolina. We surveyed the diversity of plants and soil bacteria across 30 homes, located in census block groups with median household incomes from $22,000 to $208,000. Overall, we detected 144 plant genera and 7,908 bacterial OTUs. Although bacterial richness increased with soil pH, and soil pH increased weakly with household income, household income was nevertheless a poor predictor of plant and soil bacterial diversity. The lack of correlation between income..., , # Data from: Wealth does not buy richness: Plant and soil bacterial diversity in temperate suburban lawns are not influenced by income

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.t76hdr8cj](10.5061/dryad.t76hdr8cj)

## Description of the data and file structure

This dataset contains information required to replicate analyses of Sow et al. (2026), testing the hypothesis that residential yards in wealthier neighborhoods would have higher biodiversity of plants and soil bacteria. The dataset includes biodiversity data for plants and soil bacteria sampled from 30 residential yards in Raleigh, North Carolina. Complementary data includes raw sequence data, measured soil pH at each site, and neighborhood median income from the 2014 Census. All sampling in residential yards was conducted with permission of residents and property owners.

### Files and variables

#### File: site_data.csv

**Description:** Core dataset including biodiversity, income, and soil data for each of the 30 sites included in the study..., ,