What is tree-creep?

STUDIES OF ANCIENT PLANTS HAVE shown that they react to changing climates by moving. While a single plant of course cannot move itself over large distances, seeds are often highly mobile. They can be carried by wind, water and animals to new locations. And when they put down roots in more hospitable climes, the seeds of these lucky survivors can further advance into that region. This has been going on for millennia and entire ecosystems have shifted their ranges in response to changing environmental conditions.

- Richard Pallardy

When studies of living trees in the White Mountains in New Hampshire, USA, first noted this migration in the 1970s, scientists had not yet correlated the movements to a rapidly changing climate. Now, as human activities accelerate clim