It has been suggested that global climatic change may be detected by monitoring the positions of ecotones. I built a model of the dynamics of ecotones similar to those found in altitudinal or latitudinal treelines, where a slow tendency for the ecotone to advance is counterbalanced by disturbances such as fire or landslides. The model showed that the response of such ecotones to a wide range of simulated climate changes was slow and that the ecotone front was dissected. It would appear that such ecotones would not make suitable sites for monitoring climate change.