Can Trait-Based Schemes Be Used to Select Species in Urban Forestry?

Watkins, Harry; Hirons, Andrew; Sjöman, Henrik; Cameron, Ross; Hitchmough, James

doi:10.3389/frsc.2021.654618

Cited by 17 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 85 publications

(117 reference statements)

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“…The number and range of functional traits in turn determines the functional diversity of an ecosystem (Díaz and Cabido 2001 ). As there is no single trait that sufficiently relates to tree species selection in the urban environment (Watkins et al 2021 ), our proposed indicator accounts for variations in multiple such traits relevant for plant functioning.…”

Section: Operationalisation: Nbs Incorporating Remote Sensing Functio...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Reinforcing nature-based solutions through tools providing social-ecological-technological integration

Wellmann

Andersson

Knapp

et al. 2022

Ambio

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While held to be a means for climate change adaptation and mitigation, nature-based solutions (NbS) themselves are vulnerable to climate change. To find ways of compensating for this vulnerability we combine a focused literature review on how information technology has been used to strengthen positive social–ecological–technological feedback, with the development of a prototype decision-support tool. Guided by the literature review, the tool integrates recent advances in using globally available remote sensing data to elicit information on functional diversity and ecosystem service provisioning with information on human service demand and population vulnerability. When combined, these variables can inform climate change adaptation strategies grounded in local social–ecological realities. This type of integrated monitoring and packaging information to be actionable have potential to support NbS management and local knowledge building for context-tailored solutions to societal challenges in urban environments.

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Section: Operationalisation: Nbs Incorporating Remote Sensing Functio...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Reinforcing nature-based solutions through tools providing social-ecological-technological integration

Wellmann

Andersson

Knapp

et al. 2022

Ambio

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“…Second, physiological data on E and g S might not be readily available for a great number of species, limiting decision making about species selection. Third, other physiological traits, such as leaf area or leaf water potential at turgor point can also be used to guide species selection [68]. Finally, additional factors that can mitigate (e.g., presence of blue infrastructure) or exacerbate (e.g., air pollution) urban heat are not considered in our approach.…”

Section: Additional Management Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

(Re)Designing Urban Parks to Maximize Urban Heat Island Mitigation by Natural Means

Barradas

Miranda

Esperón-Rodríguez

et al. 2022

Forests

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Urban trees play a key role in mitigating urban heat by cooling the local environment. However, the cooling benefit that trees can provide is influenced by differences in species traits and site-specific environmental conditions. Fifteen dominant urban tree species in parks from Mexico City were selected considering physiological traits (i.e., transpiration and stomatal conductance) and aesthetic and morphological characteristics. Species’ physiological performance was measured to explore the potential of trees to reduce urban heat load. Data were collected over a 4-week period in the months of April and May 2020, the warmest and driest months of the year in Mexico City. We used the Thermal UrbaN Environment Energy (TUNEE) balance model to calculate the cooling benefit of each species and the number of individuals necessary to reduce local air temperature. The highest midday transpiration was registered for Liquidambar styraciflua L. (0.0357 g m−2 s−1) and the lowest for Buddleja cordata H.B.K (0.0089 g m−2 s−1), representing an energy consumption and cooling potential of 87.13 and 21.69 J m−2 s−1, respectively. Similarly, the highest stomatal conductance was recorded for L. styraciflua., whereas the lowest was recorded for B. cordata. Based on the species transpiration rates and aesthetic characteristics, we developed a proposal and outline for a 50 × 50 m urban park (i.e., park community) consisting of six species with 19 individuals, and according to the TUNEE model, the proposed arrangement can reduce air temperature up to 5.3 °C. Our results can help urban planners to (re)design urban parks to mitigate urban heat while increasing urban tree diversity in parks.

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“…Like many ecological systems, urban forests may be better understood and managed using a trait-based approach, focusing on measured characteristics of tree species instead of species per se (Rahman et al, 2020;Sjöman et al, 2018;Watkins et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional traits and size interact to influence growth and carbon sequestration among trees in urban greenspaces

Simovic,

Mueller,

McMahon

et al. 2024

Functional Ecology

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There is persistent uncertainty about how integrated plant functions, like growth, are mechanistically constrained and practically predicted by functional traits. For trees, these knowledge gaps persist for two reasons: First, studies of ‘natural’ forests are observational, with highly variable and confounding resource limitation and competition; second, most studies investigate only a few popular traits and ignore context‐dependencies in trait effects on growth (e.g. trait–environment or trait–ontogeny interactions). We assessed 17 traits as predictors of radial growth and aboveground carbon sequestration for 182 trees, including individuals of 42 species common to temperate cities. By focusing exclusively on planted trees growing in isolation, our unique study is a pseudo‐experiment that spans a large range of taxonomic and trait variability, and minimizes confounding effects of environmental heterogeneity (e.g. shifts in light availability with tree size). Focal traits included not only commonly measured traits related to leaf economics and plant size, but also wood traits and whole‐plant phenology. Models with indices of tree ontogeny (size) and traits explained 80% and 72% of variability in relative growth and carbon sequestration, respectively, and traits accounted for ~20% of the variation. Traits related to said tree functions included leaf dry matter content (LDMC), leaf N content, mature height, wood anatomy and phenology. LDMC was positively correlated with wood growth and C sequestration across all size classes, while the positive effects of leaf N, mature height and wood density were only apparent for smaller trees. Ring‐porous species had higher rates of growth and C sequestration than diffuse‐porous species. Consistent with recent theory, growth rates of isolated, urban trees vary as function of simple and interactive effects of traits and size. Our findings are useful for optimizing reforestation efforts in temperate cities, where planners and land managers can select species for rapid growth and C sequestration using freely available data for the ‘effect’ traits we identified, including wood anatomy and density, leaf N, and LDMC. Lastly, the trait–growth relationships we describe here may reflect those of ‘naturally’ isolated trees growing in savannas and/or woodlands and provide an insightful frame of reference for trees in closed‐canopy forests. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

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Can Trait-Based Schemes Be Used to Select Species in Urban Forestry?

Cited by 17 publications

References 85 publications

Reinforcing nature-based solutions through tools providing social-ecological-technological integration

Reinforcing nature-based solutions through tools providing social-ecological-technological integration

(Re)Designing Urban Parks to Maximize Urban Heat Island Mitigation by Natural Means

Functional traits and size interact to influence growth and carbon sequestration among trees in urban greenspaces

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