Urban green and ecosystem services: not just a tree

Natural and anthropogenic ecosystems are highly touched by ongoing climate change. In particular, urban ecosystems are more vulnerable due to the demographic density and natural structure lack. Environmental and human well-being in urban ecosystem depend on mitigating the harmful effect given by climate change and urbanization. Nature based solutions (NBS), particularly urban green infrastructures (UGI), are well known to provide ecosystem services that improve the ecological quality of urban areas. UGI regulate the environmental conditions leading to significantly mitigated consequences of urbanization. This work aimed to analyse the ecosystem services at three different scales (macro-, meso- and micro-scale), using different models, in order to understand which strategies are more efficient to improve ecosystem services provision. The results showed a complex interaction between tree traits and background environmental condition for the provision of ecosystem services in urban ecosystems. Moreover, foresting actions increase the ecosystem services provision. Lastly, functional traits play a key role of ecosystem services provision, especially for PM2.5 removal. Furthermore, considering the functional traits, models like i-Tree can reduce its limitations. From an urban management point of view, the results emphasize the importance to consider the environmental context when urban green areas management is performed. Moreover, considering the specificity of tree as well as the ecosystem services demand is crucial. Finally, diverse tree composition would provide vast spectrum of ecosystem services.