Crown dieback and mortality of urban trees

This study was conducted at an urban site in western Sydney, Australia during the record-breaking austral 2019‒2020 summer and the following two wet summers of 2020‒2021 and 2021‒2022. We tracked patterns of crown dieback and recovery for 23 commonly planted urban tree and shrub species (n=3-10 trees per species). A set of morphological and physiological traits were collected, including tree height, diameter at breast height, predawn and midday leaf water potentials, leaf size, specific leaf area, wood density, leaf water potential at turgor loss point, and leaf critical temperature. Environmental variables were calculated for each species, including mean annual temperature, maximum temperature of the warmest month, mean annual precipitation, precipitation of the driest month, and soil volumetric water content. Data are reported as means plus standard errors. For more details, see associated publication in Science of Total Environment (link below).