![]() But will we need to move those southern ecotypes north? Or will the Boundary Waters white pines be able to adapt?" Frelich said. "We know white pines can handle warmer temperatures because we know they can thrive in southeastern MInnesota. "Red maples are expanding explosively across the Boundary Waters right now they are showing up everywhere," he said, noting red maple has an advantage over other warmer climate species because their seeds are light and carry farther in the wind.įrelich has been a proponent of human intervention for a decade or more to prevent iconic areas like the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness from eventually becoming oak savannas, the next cycle Frelich predicts for the area when temperatures get too warm for red maples. ![]() Frelich predicted this in studies published in 20. They already are," Frelich said.īecause northern Minnesota summers already have warmed a couple degrees on average, Frelich said, red maples have started spreading across forests once dominated by spruce and fir, echoing findings that a small change in temperature can determine what species thrive and which fade away. "Northern species are going to be the hardest hit. Species will react differently to climate in sub-regions, he noted.īut Frelich said the end results mesh well with several other studies. Lee Frelich, director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Forest Ecology, who was not involved in the Woods Hole study, said its modeling appears to have oversimplified impacts because researchers used such a huge geographic area of the country for their modeling. ![]() The study suggests that even if suitable conditions for a species are predicted to expand in a specific area, human development has often fragmented forest habitat to block that species' ability to disperse seeds and expand its range. That flies against traditional National Park Service policy of letting nature take its course. national parks decide if and when to intervene to preserve traditional species in their areas, including actively assisting tree species migration by planting. The study was intended to help managers of U.S. ![]() The pace of climate change threatens to rapidly overtake this migration, and landscapes fragmented by humans present even more challenges." "They must disperse seeds that, in turn, establish, grow and reproduce. ![]() "Trees, after all, cannot walk," said Woods Hole scientist Brendan Rogers, the study's lead author, in a statement with the study's release. The trees will begin to fail in warmer climates in many areas and won't keep up with changes without human intervention, according to the study's conclusions. forest species and found balsam fir, quaking aspen and red spruce among the most vulnerable species to warming temperatures. The most recent study, published in the journal Global Change Biology, looked at 40 different eastern U.S. The study echoes the findings of other, recent scientific research that shows some northern tree species simply won't adapt fast enough to climate change that scientists say already is occurring. Many trees common in forests across the eastern U.S., including Minnesota and Wisconsin, won't be able to keep up with the current pace of climate change, according to a new study by the Woods Hole Research Center. ![]()
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