Forest ecosystems are already being impacted by climate change as natural migration rates are outpaced by rapidly changing climate conditions. Human-assisted migration has been proposed as a potential management option to maintain optimal health and productivity of Canada's forests; however, a better understanding of the ecological implications is needed to inform decision-making on assisted migration (AM). This paper examines the ecological constraints and consequences of AM, and discusses options for their mitigation at three scales: translocation over long distances (assisted long-distance migration), translocation just beyond the range limit (assisted range expansion), and translocation of genotypes within the existing range (assisted population migration). From an ecological perspective, we find that AM is a feasible management option for tree species and that constraints and consequences can be minimized through careful application of available knowledge and tools.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.