You can make one material instance the parent of another. EG: Material → instance1 → instance2. If you can build a chain of dependencies, changes at the root will automagically filter/propagate to it’s children. Example: you have your base tree material, bark and all that. Make an instance and tweak it as you like for your basic, generic tree. Then make a child instance off of that for specific-settings to make an Oak. A different child for Spruce, etc…
Unsure of your exact setup but if you can do this, it could be a timesaver.
Otherwise, you can use a material parameter collection to store settings in a common-container? EG: I have a master value I use to set my texture-scaling against for everything in my game, it’s effectively my texel-size-control. Since every material I make uses that value, I can change the look of my game in one go.