Descrizione del progetto
Creare foreste resilienti ai cambiamenti climatici per l’Europa usando la scienza partecipativa e la genomica
La costituzione di foreste in grado di crescere e riprodursi in futuro è essenziale per mitigare i cambiamenti climatici. Il progetto MyGardenOfTrees, finanziato dall’UE, realizzerà uno strumento predittivo per la selezione delle fonti di semi ottimali in tutta Europa, tenendo conto dell’interazione tra la composizione genetica delle foreste e le condizioni vegetative locali. Con l’aiuto degli addetti alla silvicoltura a livello locale, sarà creata una rete di centinaia di piccoli siti sperimentali (micro-giardini) in tutta Europa per due specie di alberi forestali: il faggio rosso e l’abete bianco. La portata senza precedenti dell’esperimento sarà ulteriormente ampliata utilizzando la genomica d’avanguardia, sfruttando la somiglianza genetica tra le popolazioni e la somiglianza ambientale tra i luoghi dei micro-giardini. Il progetto esamina inoltre la possibilità di utilizzare la pratica forestale della semina diretta anziché quella dei vivai.
Obiettivo
How organisms adapt to their environments is the most fundamental question in evolutionary biology and is of utmost importance given climate change threats. Identifying key traits involved in adaptations and understanding how they interact with each other, and with the environment, is a particularly urgent task for foundation and resource-production species, such as forest trees. Existing experiments assessing local adaptation lack scalability and predictability in natural environments, especially at the species range margins. Landscape genomics studies could reveal adaptive loci across environmental gradients, but they are hindered by the assumptions of a neutral model and the highly polygenic nature of most traits. To address these shortcomings, I will conduct a species range-wide transplant experiment using participatory science and genomics to (i) reveal major patterns and drivers of adaptation and (ii) to build a predictive model for selecting optimal seed sources for a given location that accounts for gene-environment interactions and demography. I will develop a participatory network of foresters as well as ordinary citizens, who will establish a large number (>2500) of micro gardens (4 to 36 m2). Seeds source populations of Fagus sylvatica and Abies alba, and their sister species, will be selected from across their ranges. To evaluate plant performance in novel climate conditions, garden locations will also cover locations beyond the species' current distribution range. Early survival and growth traits, which are under the highest selection pressure in trees, will be monitored and analyzed herein. An unprecedented nearly full factorial design transplant data set will be obtained using a genomic prediction (GP) model that exploits the genetic similarity between populations and the environmental similarity between garden locations. Finally, I will implement the GP model for forest managers to aid assisted migration decisions with evoluti
Campo scientifico
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesgenetics
- social sciencessociologydemography
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesevolutionary biology
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesforestrysilviculture
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesatmospheric sciencesclimatologyclimatic changes
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
ERC-COG - Consolidator GrantIstituzione ospitante
8903 Birmensdorf
Svizzera