Thailand’s catastrophic flood: Bangkok tree mortality as a function of taxa, habitat, and tree size

Abstract Urban areas have unique environments such as high air temperature, soil compaction and disturbance, and air and water pollution often impose plant stresses. Natural disasters can impose even greater stresses on plants in such areas. In 2011 Bangkok, Thailand experienced its worst flooding in over two decades, inundated up to a meter for a month. Here we report on tree tolerance to submerged, anoxic soils based on mortality. We identified over 6500 trees by taxa: 395 species in 219 genera within 60 families, which were categorized into three groups: susceptible (>50% mortality), tolerant (