Species clustering, climate effects, and introduced species in 5 million city trees across 63 US cities.

ABSTRACT: Sustainable cities depend on urban forests. City trees-pillars of urban forests-improve our health, clean the air, store CO₂, and cool local temperatures. Comparatively less is known about city tree communities as ecosystems, particularly regarding spatial composition, species diversity, tree health, and the abundance of introduced species. Here, we assembled and standardized a new dataset of N = 5,660,237 trees from 63 of the largest US cities with detailed information on location, health, species, and whether a species is introduced or naturally occurring (i.e., "native"). We further designed new tools to analyze spatial clustering and the abundance of introduced species. We show that trees significantly cluster by species in 98% of cities, potentially increasing pest v

SUBMITTER: McCoy DE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9578703 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature