Objective
The main objective of MAPLE is to identify and to characterize the occurrence of microevolutionary adaptive traits in response to elevated CO2 in native species from a number of carbon dioxide springs.
A multidisciplinary research team composed by ten European laboratories will assess the occurrence of significant quantitative genetic changes in plant populations that have been growing for generations under elevated CO2 concentrations in the proximity of non-sulphur polluted carbon dioxide gas vents. Relevant expertises in ecophysiology, biochemistry, plant physiology, population biology, molecular biology and genetics will be used to compare species adapted to elevated CO2 concentration and plants growing at ambient CO2.
Plant material collected at several carbon dioxide springs in Italy will be shared among participating laboratories.
Gas exchange, stable carbon isotope discrimination, chlorophyll fluorescence, sulphur and nitrogen metabolism will be studied both in the field and in appropriate laboratory experiments. The occurrence of genetic changes on antioxidant status of species and their proneness to pathogenic attacks will be assessed. Changes in Rubisco (Ribulose 1,5 - biphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase) activity will be monitored. Genetic changes in adaptative biometric and physiological characters and in neutral markers (isozyme, RFLP) will be studied.
Data obtained in this multidisciplinary study will provide a basis to better understand future evolutionary responses of natural flora and natural ecosystems to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations.
Fields of science
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
50122 Firenze
Italy