Assisted migration 2021

Dr. Cuauhtémoc Sáenz Romero, his colleagues and students continue their experiments of reciprocal transplants of oyamel (Abies religiosa) at contrasting elevations. One and a half years after the current part of their experiment started, the sites where most of the seedlings were planted at a higher elevations than where they originated, i.e., 3400 m, continued to show very good survival rates (98% on average). Those planted at 2600 m, in a site chosen to mimic a warmer climate (between 2°C to 4 °C higher than the one where the seedlings originated), showed an average 30% survival rate. Results suggest the need to reforest at progressively higher altitudes, to compensate the effects of climatic change, A new site with altitudes well beyond the upper altitudinal natural distribution limit of the species was established at Nevado de Toluca as shown in the video below.