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In the context of current climate change, municipalities tend to plant more trees in order to benefit from services they provide in urban areas, such as reducing heat islands. However, in cities, trees are subject to severe abiotic constraints, the main ones being soil contamination and the lack of water due to soil compaction and droughts. This can negatively impact the ecological services provided by trees. Our study aims to help managers in monitoring the phytosanitary status of trees in order to be able to react promptly. In a controlled condition experiment, different plant compounds were analyzed (proline, malondialdehyde-MDA, photosynthetic pigments) in the leaves of young linden trees conventionally grown for planting by the City of Paris, France. They were grown on a trace element (TE) contamination soil gradient, and under different water regimes (well-hydrated/no water stress (Ct), dehydration (Dh), rehydration (Rh)) to see if tested compounds could be early stress markers in trees. Chlorophylls (Chl) could be considered as water and TE-mediated stress markers. Indeed Chl a and b concentrations significantly decreased with dehydration (e.g. respectively −34 % and −24 %) and increasing lead concentration in leaves (respectively, correlation coefficients were −1.08; −0.64 (p