Urban tree mortality rates for repeated inventory studies of uneven-aged trees.
Time period t is years since planting. Rates were reported directly in the studies, except those with †, which were calculated using data provided in the study. When a range of mortality and time periods were reported, the maximum and minimum values were used in calculations.
| Citation | City and state | Sample type(s) and sample size (no) | Time t (yrs) | Annual mortality qannual (%) | Study notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Impens and Delcarte (1979) | Brussels, Belgium | Street trees 1974 (75,653) 1975 (80,493) 1976 (82,374) 1977 (81,581) | 1 | 2.8 2.6 3.3 1.9 | |
| Dawson and | Urbana, IL | Street trees (1768) | 50 | 1.1 | |
| Nowak (1986) | Syracuse, NY Syracuse and Rochester, NY | Street trees (1454) Street trees (1160) | 7 9 | 2.4† 2.3† | Paper also provides mortality rates for species, dbh, curbing, strip width, situation, adjacent land use, utilities, crown, ground disturbance, and condition. |
| Miller and Neely (1993) | Champaign, IL | Street trees, campus and city parkways (98) | 5 | 1.5† | Trenched in 1987, annual growth and mortality data collected through 1991. |
| Hauer et al. (1994) | Milwaukee, WI | Street trees | 10 | 2.3 | Compared survival of street trees damaged by construction to those not damaged during 1981-1985. |
| Hickman et al. | Lodi, CA | Park trees (695) | 7 | 1.28 | |
| Nowak et al. (2004) | Baltimore, MD | All trees (1396) Transportation (33) Commercial/industrial (15) Urban open (228) High density residential (77) Forest (728) Low-medium density residential (136) Institutional (4) Barren (7) | 2 | 6.6 20.2 10.6 8.2 6.0 5.9 2.2 0 0 | Paper also provides mortality for dbh class, condition, and species. |
| Jim (2005) | Hong Kong, China | Heritage trees in parks | 10 | 1.5† | Performed post-mortem assessments to explain possible relationships between predisposing factors and eventual tree loss. |
| Boyce (2010) | New York City, NY | Street trees in pits With stewardship Without stewardship | > 4 | 0.49 1.9 | Paper also provides mortality rates for new and established trees based on growing season. |
| Staudhammer et al. (2011) | Houston, TX | All trees (305) | 8 | 4.7 | Paper also provides mortality rates for different size classes and a graph of average hurricane-related and non-hurricane mortality rates for these land use categories: developed low intensity, developed high intensity, developed open, woody wetlands. |
| Lawrence et al. (2012) | Gainesville, FL | All trees (754) Commercial Forest Institutional Residential | 3-4 | 9.97 3.12 5.41 19.2 9.12 | |
| Jack-Scot et al. (2013) | New Haven, CT | Community planted trees | 4-16 | 1.9-7.3† | |
| Lima et al. (2013) | San Juan, Puerto Rico | All trees (244) | 9 | 30 | Paper provides a graph of average annual plot-level mortality rates for these land use categories: commercial/industry/institution/transportation, residential, vacant, mangrove forest, upland secondary forest. |
| Roman et al. (2014a) | Oakland, CA | Street trees (995) | 5 | 3.7 | |
| Escobedo et al. (2016) | Santiago, Chile | Urban trees in inventory plots Broadleaf-deciduous (476) Broadleaf-evergreen (210) Conifer (43) Palm (20) | 12 2.99 2.98 3.29 2.92 | Inventory of plots on different land use classes: residential, commercial/industrial, green areas, agriculture, transportation. | |
| Martin et al. (2016) | San Francisco, CA | Street trees Arbutus (135) P. cerasifera (136) P. serrulata (122) | 17-2 2 | 1.2-1.5† 1.1-1.5† 2.0-2.6† | |
| Boukili et al. (2017) | Cambridge, MA | Street trees (592) | 3 | 3.6 | This is the citywide annual mortality. Average street segment mortality is 6.7%. |
| Steenberg et al. (2018) | Toronto, Canada | Yard, street, public ROW (806) | 6-7 | 2.6-3.0† | |
| van Doorn and McPherson (2018) | Claremont, CA | Street, 21 species (community-level) (732) | 14 | 1.03 | The stated 1.03% is the “community-level median removal rate.” |