Hyperdominance of exotic invasive trees in street afforestation of semi-arid Brazilian cities

Supplementary Material from the original research article entitled: “Hyperdominance of exotic invasive trees in street afforestation of semi-arid Brazilian cities”. Authors: Arleu B. Viana-Juniora, João Carlos Pena, Fernanda Kalina Da Silva Monteiro, Joselice da Silva Pereira, Rafaella Santana Santos, D’Ávilla Ruama Fernandes Lopes Gomes, Sérgio de Faria Lopes, Maria Avany Bezerra-Gusmão, Camile Dias Avelino, Bráulio Almeida Santos. ARTICLE INFORMATION: This study investigates the distribution, richness, and species composition of street trees in 10 semi-arid Brazilian cities, analysing the proportion of native and non-native species and the potential of these urban areas to support biodiversity. A total of 1,381 trees of 69 species were identified. About 80% of the individuals and 52% of the species were non-native. More concerning, approximately 60% of the individuals belonged to exotic invasive species; the Indian Neem alone, Azadirachta indica, accounted for 700 individuals. As expected, the increase in impervious surface cover negatively affected the native species richness. Five cities were classified as antagonistic for biodiversity due to the high proportion and dominance of non-native species. These findings reveal a concerning bias towards exotic invasive tree species in the studied Brazilian cities, potentially causing negative effects on the remaining urban biota.