ABSTRACT
Urban populations depend on rural areas to supply essential provisioning ecosystem services including food, fibres, wood and water, and it is often assumed that urban areas are unable to make any significant contribution to such services. However, urban greenspaces deliver a variety of supporting, regulating and cultural ecosystem services (Davies et al. 2011a; Gómez-Baggethun et al. 2013; Nowak et al. 2013a), including high species richness (McKinney 2008), improved psychological well-being (Fuller et al. 2007), reduced stormwater run-off and air pollution interception (Sæbø et al. 2012). Better management of urban greenspace to deliver multiple ecosystem services has the potential to simultaneously enhance the quality of life for city dwellers and the sustainability of urban areas (Davies
et al. 2011a). Despite such evidence, the potential for urban greenspaces to deliver provisioning ecosystem services such as biomass fuel and timber, and regulating services, such as carbon storage, has received little attention in the UK. Consequently, the extent to which tree planting can contribute to CO2 emissions reduction targets through carbon sequestration into biomass or through biofuel substitution for fossil fuels in UK cities remains unclear.
