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EDITORIAL article

Front. For. Glob. Change
Sec. Forest Management
Volume 8 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/ffgc.2025.1543763
This article is part of the Research Topic Forest Assisted Migration View all 12 articles

Editorial: Forest Assisted Migration

Provisionally accepted
Paula E. Marquardt Paula E. Marquardt 1*Brian J Palik Brian J Palik 2Philippe Nolet Philippe Nolet 3Alison D Munson Alison D Munson 4
  • 1 USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station, Rhinelander, WI, United States
  • 2 USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station, Grand Rapids, MN, United States
  • 3 Institut de Recherche sur la Forêt Tempérée, Département des Sciences Naturelles, Université du Québec en Outaouais, Ripon, QC,, Canada
  • 4 Département des Sciences du bois et de la Forêt, Université Laval,, Québec, QC,, Canada

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Recent research indicates that Forest Assisted Migration (FAM) may help mitigate climate change impacts on forests, with nearly 60% of studies supporting its use (Xu & Prescott, 2024). However, FAM poses risks, such as introducing invasive species and maladaptation (Chen et al., 2021), increasing susceptibility to pathogens (Grady et al., 2015), and raising social concerns (Hagerman & Kozak, 2021). This research topic considers the application of assisted migration practices to forest management. We have curated contributions from sixty-five authors studying twenty-five species across eleven articles grouped into four subtopics. All articles were published in a special Frontiers in Forests and Global Change issue titled "Forest Assisted Migration." This collection highlights the interdisciplinary nature of the research. The subtopics include:1. Genetic and environmental factors influencing plant traits 2. Assisted migration practices through field trials and silvicultural methods 3. Social attitudes toward FAM and its implications for forest planning 4. Models for improving the accuracy of seed transfer and species selection. Some contributions cross multiple subtopics. Individually and collectively, this collection substantially enhances our understanding of FAM's application.The establishment of provenance trials and common gardens are used to test tree species' responses and performance, often involving transfers across latitudinal or elevational gradients.

    Keywords: adaptive management, Climate Change, field trials, modeling, provenance, seed source, silviculture, Social acceptability

    Received: 11 Dec 2024; Accepted: 13 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Marquardt, Palik, Nolet and Munson. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Paula E. Marquardt, USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station, Rhinelander, WI, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.