Article Katherine M. Nigro , Kristen Pelz , Monique E. Rocca & Miranda D. Redmond Nature Climate Change (2025) Cite this article Metrics Abstract As climate warms, trees are expected to track their ideal climate, referred to as ‘range shifts’; however, lags in tree range shifts are currently common. Disturbance events that kill trees may help catalyse tree migrations by removing biotic competition, but can also limit regeneration by eliminating seed sources, and it is unknown whether disturbance will facilitate or inhibit tree migrations in the face of climate change. Here we use national forest inventory data to show that seedlings of 15 dominant tree species in the interior western United States occupy historically cooler areas than mature trees, as expected with climate warming. However, the climatic differences between adults and seedlings are the result of widespread regeneration failures in the hottest portions of species’ ranges. Disturbances did not uniformly catalyse climatic range shifts; differences were species- and disturbance-specific. Assisted migration programmes may thus be needed to help trees adapt their ranges to climate change. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution Access options Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription $29.99 / 30 days cancel any time Learn more Subscribe to this journal Receive 12 print issues and online access $209.00 per year only $17.42 per issue Learn more Buy this article Purchase on SpringerLink Instant access to full article PDF Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout Additional access options: Log in Learn about institutional subscriptions Read our FAQs Contact customer support Data availability The derived data that support the findings of this study are available via Figshare at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.27146415 (ref. 43 ). The exact coordinates (latitude and longitude) for FIA […]