Tree range shift paper wins award from the Ecological Society of America
The paper “Divergence of species responses to climate change,” coauthored by Kevin Potter, a North Carolina State University scientist cooperating with the Eastern Threat Center, has been awarded the 2019 W.S. Cooper Award by the Ecological Society of America.
The award is given annually to an outstanding publication in the field of geobotany, physiographic ecology, plant succession, or the distribution of plants along environmental gradients. Potter and colleagues from Purdue University and the Southern Research Station analyzed extensive data on 86 tree species in the eastern United States and found that most trees have been shifting their ranges westward or northward in response to temperature and precipitation changes.Their results were published in the May 2017 issue of Science Advances. The paper was also ranked number 59 on the list of top science stories in 2018 by Discover magazine. Check out the announcement from the Ecological Society of America, the article in Discover magazine, and learn more about this study of tree range shifts.
