Influence of Urban Tree Traits on Their Ecosystem Services: A Literature Review

Danchen Liang and Ganlin Huang ()
Additional contact information
Danchen Liang: Center for Human-Environment System Sustainability (CHESS), State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology (ESPRE), Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Ganlin Huang: Center for Human-Environment System Sustainability (CHESS), State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology (ESPRE), Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China

Land, 2023, vol. 12, issue 9, 1-14

Abstract: Trees in cities are vital to the health of the urban ecosystem and residents’ wellbeing. Besides providing habitats, trees provide food via fruits and young leaves, reduce temperature, and enrich landscape aesthetics with spring flowers and autumn foliage. The generation and supply of these ecosystem services are closely related to their traits, such as the size of the canopy and the sparseness of the leaves, which directly affect their ability to shade and cool. Studies focusing on ecosystem services often consider green space as a whole, and some distinguish the difference between trees and grass. Relatively fewer studies examined the influence of tree traits on the supply of ecosystem services. Understanding the association among species, traits, and ecosystem services would be helpful in generating actionable knowledge for urban tree planting. However, these studies are often scattered under different research topics. To this end, we reviewed and summarized studies on the relationship between urban tree species/traits and ecosystem services according to provision, regulation, and cultural service types. Based on 45 publications, we found that leaf area, crown size, diameter at breast height, tree height, and leaf shape may influence various ecosystem services. We presented a preliminary framework of “trait- service” and argued that with the help of such a framework, future research should generate actionable knowledge for practitioners to identify potential tree species for selection according to desired services.

Keywords: ecosystem service; urban trees; tree trait; green space (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/9/1699/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/9/1699/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:12:y:2023:i:9:p:1699-:d:1228757

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().