Urban tree selection for climate change: a systematic review

Resumen

Cities’ expansion led to environmental changes, making urban areas vulnerable to climate change. Cities’ resilience is a core topic of urban agendas worldwide, and rely on trees to foster adaptation through ecosystem services. However, trees will only accomplish this task if they are resilient to climate extremes. Trees themselves can produce negative outcomes - disservices - from failure, pollen production, VOC emissions, etc. This systematic review based on the PRISMA framework assessed how literature supports evidence-based decision-making on tree species selection considering: ecosystem services, resilience and disservices. Based on 223 studies considering at least one of these pillars, the spatial distribution analysis revealed the current gap in the Global South despite the highest biodiversity globally. Most studies are about ecosystem services, followed by resilience and disservices. The integration of these pillars is still rare in the literature, only 3 studies assessed them. DBH and tree height are the most common traits in all three pillars, pointing to the role of tree size. Of 1 101 species found, even the most studied species don’t cover their current urban climate envelope posing limitations on the results extrapolations. The review points to gaps in literature and information for evidence-based decisions for urban tree selection.

Citation: Figueiredo Candido, L., da Silva, C. L. & Maselli Locosselli, G. 2025. Urban tree selection for climate change: a systematic review. Revista Jard. Bot. Nac. Univ. Habana 46 (Número especial 1): 77.

Trabajo presentado en el XIII Congreso Latinoamericano de Botánica. Sesión Ecología, Interacciones, Medio Ambiente y Cambio Climático.