Assessing the potential for urban trees to facilitate forest tree migration in the eastern United States

Latitudinal shifts in tree species distributions are a potential impact of climate change on forest ecosystems. It has been hypothesized that some tree species may become extirpated as climate change effects may exceed their migration ability. The goal of this study was to compare tree species compo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Forest ecology and management 2010-03, Vol.259 (8), p.1447-1454
Main Authors: Woodall, C.W., Nowak, D.J., Liknes, G.C., Westfall, J.A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal and plant ecology
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Assisted migration
Biological and medical sciences
biomass
Climate change
climatic factors
density
Eastern United States
Facilitated migration
Forest ecosystems
forest trees
Forestry
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
geographical distribution
latitude
seed dispersal
species diversity
Synecology
Terrestrial ecosystems
Urban
urban areas
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Summary:Latitudinal shifts in tree species distributions are a potential impact of climate change on forest ecosystems. It has been hypothesized that some tree species may become extirpated as climate change effects may exceed their migration ability. The goal of this study was to compare tree species compositions in northern urban areas to tree compositions in forestland areas in the eastern U.S. as an indicator of the potential for urban trees to facilitate future forest tree species migration. Results indicated that a number of tree species native to eastern U.S. forests of southern latitudes are currently present in northern urban forests. The biomass density (Mg/ha) of urban tree species is typically less than half of forestland densities with the majority of urban tree species found in nearby (
ISSN:0378-1127
1872-7042
DOI:10.1016/j.foreco.2010.01.018