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This is totally a chicken and egg situation. The places on our globe that experience a seasonal change in photoperiod are the same places that will get very cold. The idea behind having less direct sunlight for a part of the year tends to leave an area colder than where there is a longer photoperiod with more intense light.
Naturally, places near the equator that see the same amounts of light all year long, often do not have an abundance of trees that shed their leaves on a seasonal basis. We can chalk this up to an evolutionary process. Plants in those latitudes take advantage of the constant photoperiod by growing sturdy leaves that are used all of the time.
So you say, a tree is losing it's leaves b/c it's cold, well kinda, you say that a tree is losing it's leave b/c of the shortened photoperiod, well kinda. What are you are witnessing is an organism, per se, that has evolved in a very efficient way to allow itself to survive in the best way that is has found in the adverse conditions that are presented to it.
-SF
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