Global prevailing winds (IMAGE) University of California - Berkeley Caption Unlike daily weather, global prevailing wind patterns are believed to be relatively stable over millennial timescales. A new study finds that these wind currents have helped shape genetic diversity in the world's forests and could impact how well different tree populations are able to adapt to a changing climate. In this image, black arrows and white paths represent global prevailing wind directions, and colored dots represent the locations of the tree populations whose genetic data were analyzed in the study. Credit Matthew Kling, UC Berkeley Usage Restrictions with credit License Licensed content Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.