“Understanding the mechanisms responsible for the rate and direction of changes in the range of species is extremely important. It allows us to understand the evolution of biodiversity and may contribute to ensuring its effective protection,” Prof. Bogdan Jaroszewicz from the Białowieża Geobotanical Station of the UW’s Faculty of Biology said. Together with an international team of scientists, he has published research results indicating that environmental changes may affect the geographical distribution of species in unexpected ways.

Prof. Bogdan Jaroszewicz from the Białowieża Geobotanical Station (Faculty of Biology, UW) is one of the co-authors of the article entitled Unexpected westward range shifts in European forest plants links to nitrogen deposition, which was published in “Science”.

An international team of researchers quantified multi-decadal shifts in the distribution of European forest plants and linked them to key factors influencing changes in the distribution of forest biodiversity. The research aimed to verify the widespread scientific belief that species’ ranges are shifting poleward with climate change.

The results of the analysis, published by the researchers in the “Science” journal, suggest that new species sites are not necessarily appearing north of the species’ current range, as a western direction is more likely for many European forest plant species.

“For years, ecologists have been debating the rate of migration of terrestrial species, which is many times less than the rate of climate warming. Measures are therefore being considered under the term of ‘assisted migration’, whereby humans move species from disappearing sites to sites where climatic conditions are already suitable for them, but where they have not yet arrived,” Prof. Bogdan Jaroszewicz said.

“Today’s climate is changing at such an unprecedented rate that understanding the mechanisms responsible for the speed and direction of changes in species range is extremely important. It allows us to understand the evolution of biodiversity and can contribute to ensuring its effective conservation,” the researcher emphasised.

The leader of the team preparing the publication was the Forest & Nature Lab research group of Ghent University in Belgium. Forty scientists representing more than 30 scientific institutions from Poland and across Europe collaborated in the preparation of the manuscript.