Tree Structure, Diversity, and Carbon Storage in Urban and Peri-Urban Parks of Western Mexico

Urban green spaces play a key role in supporting biodiversity, climate regulation, and carbon storage in rapidly expanding cities. Urban and peri-urban parks can differ markedly in tree-community structure, floristic diversity, and carbon-storage capacity. The aim of the study was to compare these attributes between an urban and a peri-urban park. The study compared these attributes between an urban park and a peri-urban park in western Mexico using data collected in 500 m2 circular plots. Tree structure was assessed through diameter at breast height, height, crown diameter, basal area, and crown projection area, while floristic composition and diversity were evaluated using richness, Shannon, Simpson, Pielou, and Menhinick indices. Aboveground biomass, belowground biomass, and carbon stocks were estimated using generalized allometric equations. A total of 1675 trees belonging to 19 families, 33 genera, and 49 species were recorded. The peri-urban park showed greater structural development, with significantly higher DBH, height, crown diameter, basal area, biomass, and carbon stocks, whereas the urban park supported greater species richness and higher Shannon diversity. Species composition also differed strongly between parks, and carbon storage was concentrated in a reduced number of dominant taxa in each site. DBH was the structural variable most strongly associated with total carbon per tree. These findings show that floristic diversity and carbon-storage capacity do not necessarily increase in parallel and that urban and peri-urban parks can provide contrasting but complementary ecological functions.