Glob. Change Biol. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2011.02586.x (2011)

Climate change is expected to lead to significant shrinkage and/or shifting of habitat for many species. As a result there is growing interest in proactive adaptation strategies, perhaps the most controversial of which is assisted colonization, in which species are moved to new suitable habitat that they could not have reached on their own.

Conservation biologist Helen Regan, at the University of California, Riverside, USA, and colleagues focused on Tecate cypress, a rare fire-dependant tree found in California. They tracked the impacts of climate change on the tree's habitat to investigate whether assisted colonization could help offset threats, such as habitat loss and altered fire regimes.

The results suggest that assisted colonization could be an effective risk-minimizing strategy, so long as there are suitable sites nearby and translocated trees are able to establish successfully. However, assisted colonization may be ineffective where other threats are ongoing, such as where humans have increased the rate or severity of fire outbreaks.