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Amazingly, the rest of the landscape is a kind of green roof as well, sitting atop a 2,400-spot underground parking structure — available to those visiting the Lucas or any of Expo Park’s other institutions.

Officials say it is also a symbol of the city’s desire to host a “sustainable” games, having been built with recycled materials and wood and featuring a green roof.

A Dartmouth-led research team set out to determine if managing green roof soil microbes could boost healthy urban soil development, a methodology that could be applied to support climate resilience in cities.

The team created an experimental green roof in Chicago to test how enhancing soil with native prairie microbes would change the soil microbial community over time.

The researchers added soil rich with native mycorrhizal fungi obtained from a local restored prairie, referred to as "inoculum," to the experimental green roof's soil.