Helping the EU’s forests overcome environmental challenges
Forests in the EU cover 33 % of land area and sequester 719 million tonnes of CO2 while providing over 3 million people with work and revenue to 16 million forest owners. They are also havens of biodiversity and a chance to reconnect with nature for us all. Keeping them robust and healthy is the work of land managers and decision makers, many of whom rely on the European Forest Genetic Resources Programme, EUFORGEN(opens in new window). To make the resource even more useful, the FORGENIUS(opens in new window) project set out to create a brand-new information system on forest genetic resources, providing data on their short- and long-term resilience and adaptability to climate change. “This is an exciting time to be working on extracting all the knowledge and understanding big data can give us – we have so much information and now we have the technology to get the most out of the analysis,” says project coordinator Ivan Scotti, director of research at the Mediterranean Forests Ecology Research Unit(opens in new window) at the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment in France. Scotti is interested in the mechanisms underlying local adaptation and how adaptive processes, or the lack of them, can affect the viability and resilience of tree populations at the species range level. “I want to harness such information to support the management and conservation of forest genetic diversity, and biodiversity in general,” he explains. Making the project results available to decision makers in biodiversity conservation is one of the project’s key aims: “FORGENIUS’s goal is to present data in an appealing format, designed to be immediately picked up by end users.”
More accessible, more comprehensive – updating forest genetic resources database for the 21st century
Forest genetic resources are made up of the heritable diversity that underpins the evolution and adaptability of forests and trees, in other words, the genetic aptitude that allows the trees and forests to flourish. They are one component of forest biodiversity, which encompasses all the living, and dead, things in a forest and the ecological processes of which they are a part. Much about forest genetic diversity remains unknown, especially in tropical forests. Estimates of the number of tree species vary from 80 000 to 100 000, yet fewer than 500 have been studied in any depth for their present and future potential. To allow users to characterise prospective new genetic conservation units, the project used environmental indices obtained through remote sensing. The team modelled predictions of how trees respond to extreme events, along with eco-physiological traits. They also analysed genomic data and estimators of adaptive diversity. The result? FORGENIUS has created a modernised, web-based platform for querying, viewing and managing genetic conservation units (GCUs) for forest tree species in Europe, called EUFGIS(opens in new window). A live demonstration of the upgraded platform(opens in new window) is also available. The interface displays dynamic visual indicators to track conservation progress, allowing users to assess the status of genetic resources by species and country. “As we are particularly keen to share the data for broader integration, the interface is designed to connect directly with other systems, making data exchange easier,” notes Scotti.
Knowledge is power – harnessing data to make Europe’s forests more resilient
Scotti believes the project has significantly increased and improved data quantity and quality in the EUFORGEN information system(opens in new window). “In practice this means that people consulting the database, such as conservationists, forestry managers, landowners or scientists, will be able to easily access information on genetic diversity, including new data types like the Admixture index(opens in new window). “This will help us to refine our management of forest genetic resources and put Europe’s forests in a stronger position to cope with the environmental challenges ahead,” Scotti adds.
