Grant: Advancing Climate Change Science in Canada

Urban forests (UF) are associated with important ecosystem services, such as reduced heat and improved air*quality, which benefit both environmental and human health. These benefits will become even more important*with climate change (CC), yet it is unclear how the UF will be impacted by CC, how that will affect human*health, and how the UF can be adapted to face CC and better support ecosystem services. This includes*removing carbon, which Canada has an obligation to report on. Current estimates of the UF carbon in Canada*use rates based on empirical observations made in United States and/or in natural forests. This has been*identified as an important source of uncertainty that needs to be addressed to forecast future UF density and*composition, and to investigate the hypothesis that the effects of CC on people may be greater than previously*thought if trees are also themselves affected negatively. Features such as tree size and crown shape that*influence resilience to CC and ecosystem services in UF are also different than in natural forests. Yet*incomplete inventories of urban trees and a paucity of data on canopies means that relevant data for modeling*and prediction of service production is scarce. Our goal is to better characterize UF with richer data, and to*identify best practices for developing resilient UFs that will support ecosystem services now and in the future.