Greater growth stability of trees in marginal habitats suggests a patchy pattern of population loss and retention in response to increased drought at the rear edge

Species rear range edges are predicted to retract as climate warms, yet evidence of population persistence is accumulating. Accounting for this disparity is essential to enable prediction and planning for species’ range retractions. At the Mediterranean edge of European beech‐dominated temperate forest, we tested the hypothesis that individual performance should decline at the limit of the species’ ecological tolerance in response to increased...