Ecosystem Services of urban trees: The case of Rome

Urban forests are known to provide important Ecosystem Services (ES), such as the improvement of air quality by removing gaseous and particulate pollutants, with a significant positive impact on human health (reduction of mortality and morbidity). The maintenance of these ES are related to the functionality of urban vegetation which, in its turn, is related to the occurrence of natural and anthropogenic stress factors. In this work, we have estimated the amount of O-3 and PM10 removed by woody vegetation (evergreen broadleaves, deciduous broadleaves and conifers) in the Metropolitan area of Rome, during two years characterized by different climatic conditions (2003 and 2004). The three functional groups showed complementary uptake and deposition patterns, related to tree physiology and phenology, maintaining a stable community function across different climatic conditions. The results of these simulations have been used to map this regulating ES in the five Sanitary Districts of the Municipality.