Jeannine Cavender-Bares, Erik Nelson, Jose Eduardo Meireles, Jesse Lasky, Daniela A. Miteva, David Nowak, Will Pearse, Matthew R. Helmus, Amy E Zanne, William Fagan

Trees provide critical contributions to human well-being. They sequester and store greenhouse gasses, filter air pollutants, provide wood, food, and other products, among other benefits. These benefits are threatened by climate change, fires, pests and pathogens. To quantify the current value of the flow of ecosystem services from US trees, and the potential threats they face, we combine macroevolutionary and economic valuation approaches using spatially explicit information about tree species and lineages. The value of ecosystem services generated by US trees in forests, orchards, and plantations across five key services with adequate data is $114 billion per year (low: $85 B; high: $137 B; 2010 USD). Two lineages--pines and oaks--account for 42% of these services. The non-market ‘hidden’ value of trees from carbon storage and air pollution removal far exceed their commercial value from wood products and food crops. The most valuable US tree species and lineages are also among those most threatened by known pests and pathogens, and species most valuable for carbon storage are most at risk from increasing fire. Different species in different regions contribute to carbon storage and air pollution removal, which is distinct from tree crops that are often provided by the same species in different regions. A diverse set of species distributed across the tree of life contribute to ecosystem services in the US, which is a consequence of their high spatial turnover across the continent, highlighting the need to sustain the diversity of US trees in the face of global change.