Most tree species face serious climate threat even under modest warming, study reveals

A climate-induced tree species bottleneck for forest management in Europe

Large pulses of tree mortality have ushered in a major reorganization of Europe’s forest ecosystems. To initiate a robust next generation of trees, the species that are planted today need to be climatically suitable throughout the entire twenty-first century. Here we developed species distribution models for 69 European tree species based on occurrence data from 238,080 plot locations to investigate the option space for current forest management

Most tree species face serious climate threat even under modest warming, study reveals

Trees are essential to life on Earth. They support ecosystems, store carbon, provide clean water, improve our health, and offer countless benefits to people and nature. In a new study, researchers modeled the future climate exposure (areas where trees will experience conditions they have never faced before) of more than 32,000 tree species worldwide. Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, their findings reveal that many tr…

Nearly half of tree-covered land faces major climate shifts even under modest warming, threatening most tree species as many lose suitable conditions and some face novel climates across significant portions of their remaining range, new study shows.