Please explain, thanks 😊
In: 3
Probably lack of water. All cities have to manage water runoff and that means making the water flow away from the town into rivers, lakes, or water containment.
Lots of reasons. Elevated levels of air pollution. The heat island effect. Less water availability because we try to drain it all away from our infrastructure. The higher levels of foot traffic cause soil compaction. The lack of mulch can cause soil erosion.
Excess CO2 is actually known to harm *some* species of plants — specifically C4 plants die when exposed to 525-575 PPM. Globally we’re sitting around 420 PPM of CO2 so that’s probably not at play here, although the actual PPM of CO2 may be higher in some cities. There are however other factors at work, eg: benzene in car exhaust, less rainfall caused by fewer trees (due to the lack of a biotic pump effect), poor/declining soil quality, etc. If I were to guess that last one (poor/declining soil quality) is currently the biggest detriment in most cities.
Carbon dioxide levels are not a limiting factor on plant growth lack of water, root space, toxic or acidic gases released by vehicles could be.
Trees in cities get less water, often get hit with road salt or other chemicals, more susceptible to human damage, get more pollution
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