These researchers are helping trees migrate to cope with the effects of a warming world
From the article:
While the epic migrations of salmon, humpback whales, and wildebeests are world-renowned, animals aren't the only species on the move. Trees, it turns out, can migrate too. Of course, an individual tree can't pick up its roots and travel south for the winter, but trees do move—in their own way. Katie Nigro, a postdoctoral fellow with the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), explained that trees expand their range in response to environmental changes. If the climate gets warmer, a tree species may no longer be able to grow in the southernmost parts of its range, but, through wind or animal-dispersed seeds, it can expand farther north over time into areas that were previously too cold. However, that process might be too slow for human-caused climate change. To keep pace, projections suggest, seeds would need to be dispersed at least 10 times faster than their historic migration rates of about 20 to 40 kilometers (12 to 25 miles) per century. Given the quickening rate of environmental changes and the slow rate of tree growth, researchers believe trees will struggle to adapt. To help, scientists are taking seeds from habitats they expect will no longer be suitable to a species and planting them in climates that may favor their growth in the coming century. For example, an ecosystem in Colorado that is currently ideal for a Douglas fir could become too warm to sustain it in a few decades, but that fir might thrive somewhere farther north.
