Stress-resistant trees are more common in urban than rural forests: A case study of Cleveland,Ohio’s natural parks |
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| Institution: | 1. The Holden Arboretum, 9500 Sperry Rd., Kirtland, OH 44094, United States;2. Case Western Reserve University, 10900 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH 44106, United States;1. Department of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry, University of Florence, Florence, Italy;2. Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Pisa, Via del Borghetto, 80, 56124 Pisa, Italy;3. CIRSEC, Centre for Climate Change Impact, University of Pisa, Italy;1. ARGANS Ltd, Sophia Antipolis, France;2. Ville de Aix-en-Provence, Direction des Espaces Verts, Aix-en-Provence, France;3. LAMMC, Girionys, Lithuania;4. ENEA, Rome, Italy;5. IRET-CNR, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy;6. National Biodiversity Future Center, Palermo, Italy;1. Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA), Sognsveien 68, NO-0855 Oslo, Norway;2. Department of Architecture and Planning, Faculty of Architecture and Design, NTNU—Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway;1. Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Sheffield, UK;2. Centre for Sustainable Planning and Environments, Department of Architecture and Built Environ ment, UWE Bristol, UK;1. Forest & Nature Lab, Department of Environment, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Belgium;2. Centre for Environmental and Energy Law, Department of European, Public and International Law, Ghent University, Belgium;3. Quality Assurance Office, Department of Educational Policy, Ghent University, Belgium;4. Research Group Mycology, Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Ghent University, Belgium;5. Department of Infrastructure and Facility Management, Ghent University, Belgium |
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| Abstract: | Natural parks are comprised of preserved forested natural areas that are undergoing natural ecological processes. These areas can offer a refuge for local biodiversity and contribute substantially to ecosystem services in both rural areas with relatively low population densities, as well as high-density urban areas. Forested natural parks located in urban areas should experience more stressful environmental conditions than nearby rural areas, yet we know relatively little about how urbanization impacts tree communities within these important natural habitats. To better understand the impact of urbanization on forests, we investigated the species composition, abundance, and diversity of midstory and canopy trees as well as tree seedlings in urban and rural natural parks in and around Cleveland, Ohio. We found that both urban and rural natural parks have similar tree abundance, but midstory and canopy trees as well as tree seedling communities in the urban natural parks included higher abundances of stress-tolerant species compared to rural parks. In addition, this pattern was driven by changes in native tree species, as we observed low abundance of invasive species. More stress-resistant native species in urban areas include Quercus rubra and Prunus serotina, in contrast to rural natural parks which are dominated by Acer spp. and Fagus grandifolia. Lastly, we show that urban and rural natural parks have similar species diversity within plots, but we found higher variation in community composition among urban natural parks compared to among rural parks. Furthermore, Q. rubra and P. serotina were significantly larger in rural natural parks, indicating that both environmental stress and successional stage could drive compositional differences. Thus, we show that urbanization can have unexpected effects on plant community composition and diversity. Our study refutes the idea that these are degraded habitats, highlights the need to conserve them, and suggests that characterization of local variation in self-assembled urban tree communities will provide the most accurate picture of their management needs and potential ecosystem services. |
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| Keywords: | Urban natural park Diversity Beta-diversity Tree community Urban forest |
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