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Climate drivers of tree fall on the streets of São Paulo, Brazil

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Street trees are vulnerable to extreme climate conditions such as precipitation, wind gust and high temperatures. But trees may also fail in the cities as a result of poor stewardship.

Urban trees are renowned for improving the livability in the cities through their ecosystem services. Long-lasting services, however, are only possible if local responsible authorities adequately manage the trees. Wood decay, inappropriate pruning, presence of xylophagous organisms, trunk constriction by the sidewalks, altogether increase the probability of trees to fall under adverse climate conditions. Tree fall is closely related to disservices like damages to the infrastructure, risks of injury and death. Given the previously reported poor conditions of the street trees in São Paulo/Brazil, one of the world’s largest cities, we assessed the main climate causes of tree fall. We evaluated a 3-year daily series of fallen trees in the city. The effects of precipitation, wind gust and temperature were evaluated using cross-wavelet analyses. Out of the 652,000 street trees of São Paulo, 7034 fell in the city during this period. Cross-wavelet analyses revealed that tree fall is seasonal and in phase with, and driven by, precipitation, wind gust and temperature during the wet season. While temperature directly influences tree fall, both precipitation and wind gust may show lagged effects. Such associations with climate were not observed during the dry season despite the records of fallen trees. Falling trees were observed in two-thirds of the days during the dry season. Although it could be partially caused by lagged effects of precipitation and wind gust, these records during the dry season confirm the poor stewardship and conditions of the street trees in the city. This study highlights how vulnerable street trees are to extreme climate conditions and that yet poorly managed trees fall on the streets daily without any apparent climate causes.

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Acknowledgements

Authors thank the Emergency Management Center of the City of São Paulo for providing the data used in this study, as well as the governmental that recorded the datasets. The authors also thank the São Paulo Research Foundation for the financial support (FAPESP 2019/08783-0, 2020/09251-0) and the Higher Education Improvement Coordination (CAPES).

Funding

This study was funded by: São Paulo Research Foundation for the financial support (FAPESP 2019/08783-0, 2020/09251-0) and the Higher Education Improvement Coordination (CAPES).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Botânica, Secretaria de Infraestrutura E Meio Ambiente, São Paulo, Brazil

    Giuliano Maselli Locosselli & Augusto Akio Lucchezi Miyahara

  2. Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Marcos Silveira Buckeridge

  3. Secretaria Do Verde E Do Meio Ambiente, Prefeitura do Município de São Paulo , São Paulo, Brasil

    Priscilla Cerqueira

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  1. Giuliano Maselli Locosselli
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  2. Augusto Akio Lucchezi Miyahara
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  3. Priscilla Cerqueira
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  4. Marcos Silveira Buckeridge
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Correspondence to Giuliano Maselli Locosselli.

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Locosselli, G.M., Miyahara, A.A.L., Cerqueira, P. et al. Climate drivers of tree fall on the streets of São Paulo, Brazil. Trees 35, 1807–1815 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-021-02145-4

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