ABSTRACT
The urban ecosystem is a complex amalgamation of spatial structures, and biophysical and anthropogenic processes. Urban greenery, for instance, can provide a wide range of ecosystem services such as urban climate control and carbon sequestration. At the city scale, urban forests can help to reduce ambient temperature and mitigate the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. Greenery significantly reduces surface runoff by intercepting rainfall and by returning water into the atmosphere via the evapotranspiration process. In light of changing weather conditions due to climate change, cities may experience prolonged durations of extreme weather. An important ecosystem service provided by urban greenery is to reduce temperature, leading to improvement in overall thermal comfort. In order to optimize this ecosystem service, trees with specific functional traits that can result in higher reductions in ambient temperature should be identified.
