##  [Northward Shift of Boreal Tree Cover Confirmed by Satellite Record ](/resource/northward-shift-boreal-tree-cover-confirmed-satellite-record) 

Organization

[Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research](/organization/institute-tibetan-plateau-research)

[NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Cryospheric Laboratory, Code 615](/organization/nasa-goddard-space-flight-center-cryospheric-laboratory-code-615)

 

 

Resource Type

[Peer reviewed article](/taxonomy/term/37)

 

 

Author(s)

Benjamin Poulter

Michael Wulder

 

 

Original Authors

Min Feng

Joseph Sexton

 Panshi Wang

Paul Montesano

Leonardo Calle

Nuno Carvalhais

Matthew Macander

Margaret Wooten

William Wagner

Akiko Elders

Saurabh Channan

Christopher Neigh

 

 

Contacts

[Min Feng](/contact/min-feng)

 

 

Resource Date:

2026

 

 

The boreal forest has experienced the fastest warming of any forested biome in recent decades. While vegetation–climate models predict a northward migration of boreal tree cover, the long-term studies required to test the hypothesis have been confined to regional analyses, general indices of vegetation productivity, and data calibrated to other ecoregions. Here we report a comprehensive test of the magnitude, direction, and significance of changes in the distribution of the boreal forest based on the longest and highest-resolution time-series of calibrated satellite maps of tree cover to date. From 1985 to 2020, boreal tree cover expanded by 0.844 million km2, a 12 % relative increase since 1985, and shifted northward by 0.29° mean and 0.43° median latitude. Gains were concentrated between 64–68° N and exceeded losses at southern margins, despite stable disturbance rates across most latitudes. Forest age distributions reveal that young stands (up to 36 years) now comprise 15.4 % of forest area and hold 1.1–5.9 Pg of aboveground biomass carbon, with the potential to sequester an additional 2.3–3.8 Pg C if allowed to mature. These findings confirm the northward advance of the boreal forest and implicate the future importance of the region's greening to the global carbon budget.