Abstract: The response of forest ecosystems to global climate change has always been a concern. Since the middle of the 20th century, the abnormal decrease in forest growth index and temperature sensitivity have been observed in the records of tree ring width and density in many high-latitude and high-altitude areas, which is also known as the "divergence problem". The "divergence problem" has a significant impact on forest ecosystem and the reconstruction of tree-ring paleoclimate. This article reviews the literature reports on the "divergence problem" at home and abroad, starting from the discovery of the divergence problem (including the location of the divergence problem and the tree species involved), and summarizes its causes. It is found that the current research on "divergence problem" mainly concentrates in middle and high latitudes and high altitude regions, but less in the middle and low latitudes. At present, there are still significant controversies about the explanation of the causes of the "divergence problem", which mainly include drought stress, "temperature threshold", "tail end effect", and "Arctic darkening". Therefore, it is necessary to further evaluate the stability of different tree species and different regions in response to climate change, and further determine the occurrence scope of the "divergence problem". At the same time, it is necessary to find corresponding solutions to the identified "divergence problem" to improve the accuracy of the reconstruction of tree-ring climate history.