Will tropical mountain tree species adjust to warming temperatures?

Many plant species, probably including a third of all trees, are threatened by extinction. One of the growing threats is rapid climate change and the inability of plants to move rapidly enough, or cross barriers, to places where they can persist. This threat is particularly acute for species that live on or near cool mountain tops and have no opportunity to go ever higher as temperatures increase. A research team investigated the implication of climate change for the distribution of such species. They found that "gaps" in the forest may be key. Despite a long history of research on species distributions, we do not fully comprehend the mechanisms that determine where different tree species can and cannot occur. For example, temperature has long been assumed to be the main determinant in mountains.