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Fast-growing alien trees surge as slow native species decline worldwide

Human-driven native extinctions and alien naturalizations are reshaping global tree diversity. Analysing traits and environmental niches of more than 31,000 species, we showed a global shift towards fast-growing, high-resource-use trees and that slow-growing species face a rising extinction risk, findings that have major implications for biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.

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Fig. 1: Spectra shifts for tree species between the present and the worst-case projected future scenario.

References

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This is a summary of: Guo, W.-Y. et al. Global functional shifts in trees driven by alien naturalization and native extinction. Nat. Plants https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-025-02207-2 (2026).

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Fast-growing alien trees surge as slow native species decline worldwide. Nat. Plants 12, 273–274 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-025-02213-4

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