Influence of Climate and Human Preferences on Patterns of Taxonomic and Functional Biodiversity of Recreational Parks

Recreational urban parks support diverse assemblages of plants that contribute ecosystem services to billions of individuals in cities throughout the world. Drivers of ecosystem services in parks are complex, as climate and human preferences interact with multiple species of vegetation types. Yet, informal observations suggest that recreational parks are built consistently to a specific typology. Here we ask: what are the patterns of ecosystem services and vegetation biodiversity in cities of varying climate in the United States, and how do these patterns result in a consistent typology of recreational park? We hypothesized that increased climatic aridity would exclude species not adapted to warm, dry climates, thereby reducing taxonomic alpha diversity and shifting community composition, while a similar municipal preference within the United States for specific suites of service-based traits will lead to the convergence of ecosystem services in recreational parks among cities, regardle...