Cenozoic losses of tree diversity constrain climatic adaptation of Western and Central European forests.

Tree genus richness in Western and Central Europe declined by 75% since the Miocene, with most losses occurring during the Plio-Pleistocene transition around 2-3 million years ago.

• Why it matters: Understanding historical tree diversity losses is crucial for predicting how forests can adapt to ongoing climate change and for guiding effective conservation strategies.
• What they did: The study compiled fossil records of tree genera from 66 million years ago to present and used genus-level niche models to analyze how climate shifts influenced tree diversity and distribution.
• The result: Findings reveal that climate filtering favored colder, drier conditions, leading to the loss of heat-tolerant lineages, which informs forest management approaches to bolster resilience amid future climate change.