Background climate and socioeconomic conditions constrain global urban–rural contrasts in vegetation amount, subtype, and structure

Background climate and socioeconomic conditions constrain global urban–rural contrasts in vegetation amount, subtype, and structure | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Background climate and socioeconomic conditions constrain global urban–rural contrasts in vegetation amount, subtype, and structure Rohit Mukherjee, TC Chakraborty This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8970245/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Urban vegetation provides critical ecosystem services, from microclimate regulation to biodiversity support. However, most large-scale assessments of urban vegetation rely on spectral ‘greenness’ indices that cannot resolve vegetation structure or composition. To address this, we quantify fine-scale structural and compositional vegetation traits, including leaf area index (LAI), tree height, and vegetation subtypes, across 83,102 cities and their rural surroundings by fusing millions of satellite images and satellite-derived products. Fewer than 10%, 24%, and 37% of cities exceed rural LAI, tree height, and tree cover fraction, respectively. These urban–rural contrasts in vegetation characteristics are modulated by background climate, with Arid cities showing weaker structural differences consistent with an 'oasis effect'. Socioeconomic context, classified by comparing cities in the Global North versus Global South, further shapes these patterns. Our study demonstrates that urban-rural vegetation contrasts emerge from the combined influence of climatic constraints and divergent vegetation management practices globally. urban ecology urbanization canopy height leaf area index (LAI) urban–rural contrasts global Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. 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