Phenology of trees and urbanization: a comparative study between New York City and Ithaca, New York

Abstract

The 'global warming' effect has been found to influence vegetation phenological processes. Heat island phenomenon associated with urbanized area presents a unique place to investigate its local warming effects. This study compares the date of budburst (DOBB) of street London plane trees (Platanus 6 acerifolia) between highly urbanized New York City (NYC) and relatively less urbanized Ithaca, New York in 2007 and 2008. It also linked DOBB with land surface temperature and fractional vegetation cover derived from Landsat satellite images. The DOBB in NYC and Ithaca differed significantly as budburst occurred 3 and 4 days earlier in NYC than in Ithaca in 2007 and 2008, respectively. The intensity of the heat island effect and its effect on tree phenology were greater in NYC. Results show that DOBB can be explained by temperature, and findings could be extrapolated to make inferences on the potential impact of global warming on vegetation communities.

Intra-Urban Microclimate Effects on Phenology

“…Dhami et al [18] completed a two-year study (2007 and 2008) of the London Plane tree for New York City (high density urban) and Ithaca, New York (lower density urban). They collected in-situ data, and land surface temperature (LST) and fractional vegetation indices derived from Landsat imagery, to compare differences in date of budburst between the two cities.…”

Integrative population genetics and metagenomics reveals urbanization increases pathogen loads and decreases connectivity in a wild bee

“…Compared to rural environments, cities have multiple features that impose different environmental pressures relative to rural habitats. For example, the urban heat island effect (i.e., higher temperatures in cities than in their surroundings) interferes with plant phenologies, affecting flowering times and length of growing seasons (Dhami et al, 2011; Kabano et al, 2021). Of particular concern are the impacts cities have on insect pollinators, one of the most important groups of organisms that are responsible for pollinating over 87% of flowering plants and 75% of global food crops (Aizen et al, 2009; Klein et al, 2007; Ollerton et al, 2011).…”