Climate-vegetation dynamics in the fast lane

Evidence from paleoclimatological research indicates that major climatic changes, such as the rapid increase in temperatures at the end of the Younger Dryas event ∼11 000 years ago, can occur over the span of a few decades. Vegetation response to climatic variation and change, is, by contrast, often assumed to occur gradually over much longer timescales. Two recent papers confirm earlier, theoretical predictions that changes in species composition of plant communities following climatic shifts can, however, occur with striking rapidity.