Maps developed by Laura Gray, a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Renewable Resources, provide projections of climatically suitable habitat for tree species based on climate predictions for the 2020s, 2050s and 2080s. The work, published recently in the journal Climatic Change, is the first of its kind to tackle multiple potential climate scenarios for a large number of tree species across western North America. The large-scale research considers 15 major commercial tree species and 18 different future climate change scenarios. The U of A study also considers patterns of climate change observed from the 1970s until recently and found that on average, populations already lag behind their best climate niche by 130 kilometres in latitude or 60 metres in elevation. The study addresses concerns that many populations of wide-ranging tree species that are adapted to local growing conditions, may now or in the future actually lag behind their optimal growing environment due to changing temperature.