Increased mortality can promote evolutionary adaptation of forest trees to climate change

Abstract Woody plants have been cultured in vitro since the 1930s. After that time much progress has been made in the culture of tissues, organs, cells, and protoplasts in tree species. Tree biotechnology has been making strides in clonal propagation by organogenesis and somatic embryogenesis. These regeneration studies have paved the way for gene transfer in forest trees. Transgenics from a number of forest tree species carrying a variety of recombinant genes that code for herbicide tolerance, pest resistance, lignin modification, increased woody bio-mass, and flowering control have been produced by Agrobacterium-mediated and biolistic methods, and some of them are undergoing confined field trials. Although relatively stable transgenic clones have been produced by genetic transformation in trees using organogenesis or somatic embryogenesis, there were also unintended unstable genetic events. In order to overcome the problems of randomness of transgene integration and instability reported in Agrobacterium-mediated or biolistically transformed plants, site-specific transgene insertion strategies involving clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR-Cas9) platform offer prospects for precise genome editing in plants. Nevertheless, it is important to monitor phenotypic and genetic stability of clonal material, not just under greenhouse conditions, but also under natural field conditions. Genetically modified poplars have been commercialized in China, and eucalypts and loblolly pine are expected to be released for commercial deployment in USA. Clonal forestry and transgenic forestry have to cope with rapid global climate changes in the future. Climate change is impacting species distributions and is a significant threat to biodiversity. Therefore, it is important to deploy Strategies that will assist the survival and evolution of forest tree species facing rapid climate change. Assisted migration (managed relocation) and biotechnological approaches offer prospects for adaptation of forest trees to climate change.

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Winter wren populations show adaptation to local climate

Royal Society Open Science ◽

10.1098/rsos.160250 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 3 (6) ◽

pp. 160250 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Catriona A. Morrison ◽

Robert A. Robinson ◽

James W. Pearce-Higgins

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Body Size ◽

Local Adaptation ◽

Time Lag ◽

Climate Change Impacts ◽

Extreme Weather Events ◽

Evolutionary Adaptation ◽

Selective Mortality ◽

Local Climate ◽

Evolutionary Response

Most studies of evolutionary responses to climate change have focused on phenological responses to warming, and provide only weak evidence for evolutionary adaptation. This could be because phenological changes are more weakly linked to fitness than more direct mechanisms of climate change impacts, such as selective mortality during extreme weather events which have immediate fitness consequences for the individuals involved. Studies examining these other mechanisms may be more likely to show evidence for evolutionary adaptation. To test this, we quantify regional population responses of a small resident passerine (winter wren Troglodytes troglodytes ) to a measure of winter severity (number of frost days). Annual population growth rate was consistently negatively correlated with this measure, but the point at which different populations achieved stability ( λ = 1) varied across regions and was closely correlated with the historic average number of frost days, providing strong evidence for local adaptation. Despite this, regional variation in abundance remained negatively related to the regional mean number of winter frost days, potentially as a result of a time-lag in the rate of evolutionary response to climate change. As expected from Bergmann's rule, individual wrens were heavier in colder regions, suggesting that local adaptation may be mediated through body size. However, there was no evidence for selective mortality of small individuals in cold years, with annual variation in mean body size uncorrelated with the number of winter frost days, so the extent to which local adaptation occurs through changes in body size, or another mechanism remains uncertain.

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Ecological Opportunities, Communities, and Evolution

Evolutionary Community Ecology ◽

10.23943/princeton/9780691088778.003.0001 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Mark A. McPeek

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Community Structure ◽

Community Ecology ◽

Local Community ◽

Evolutionary Dynamics ◽

Evolutionary Adaptation ◽

Regional Patterns ◽

Interacting Species ◽

Evolutionary Trajectories ◽

Regional Community

This book investigates how local and regional patterns of community structure develop across space and through time by focusing on the theoretical interrelationships among community ecology, evolutionary adaptation, dispersal, and speciation and extinction. It discusses the purely ecological dynamics of interacting species in different community modules, how species in simple community modules evolve to adapt to one another, and how speciation and biogeographic mixing of taxa influence local community structure. It also examines community mixing due to climate change and how regional community structure is shaped by the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of species across a metacommunity. This introduction provides an overview of the evolutionary trajectories of various species in the context of ecological opportunity and community ecology, aggregated taxa in the trophic web, types of species found in a community, sources of biodiversity in a community, and the dynamics of natural selection, coevolution, and community structure.

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Climate change and evolutionary adaptation

Nature ◽

10.1038/nature09670 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 470 (7335) ◽

pp. 479-485 ◽

Cited By ~ 1591

Author(s):

Ary A. Hoffmann ◽

Carla M. Sgrò

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Evolutionary Adaptation

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Incorporating evolutionary adaptation in species distribution modelling reduces projected vulnerability to climate change

Ecology Letters ◽

10.1111/ele.12696 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 19 (12) ◽

pp. 1468-1478 ◽

Cited By ~ 93

Author(s):

Alex Bush ◽

Karel Mokany ◽

Renee Catullo ◽

Ary Hoffmann ◽

Vanessa Kellermann ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Species Distribution ◽

Species Distribution Modelling ◽

Evolutionary Adaptation ◽

Distribution Modelling ◽

Vulnerability To Climate Change

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Cloud forest trees with higher foliar water uptake capacity and anisohydric behavior are more vulnerable to drought and climate change

New Phytologist ◽

10.1111/nph.13952 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 211 (2) ◽

pp. 489-501 ◽

Cited By ~ 47

Author(s):

Cleiton B. Eller ◽

Aline L. Lima ◽

Rafael S. Oliveira

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Water Uptake ◽

Cloud Forest ◽

Forest Trees ◽

Uptake Capacity ◽

Water Uptake Capacity ◽

Foliar Water Uptake

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Adaptive plasticity in plant traits increases time to hydraulic failure under drought in a foundation tree

10.1101/2020.08.19.258186 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

A Challis ◽

CJ Blackman ◽

CW Ahrens ◽

BE Medlyn ◽

PD Rymer ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Drought Tolerance ◽

Water Deficit ◽

Plant Traits ◽

Stomatal Closure ◽

Adaptive Plasticity ◽

List Type ◽

Environment Interaction ◽

Forest Trees ◽

Hydraulic Failure

SummaryThe viability of forest trees, in response to climate change-associated drought, will depend on their capacity to survive through genetic adaptation and phenotypic plasticity in drought tolerance traits. Genotypes with enhanced plasticity for drought tolerance (adaptive plasticity) will have a greater ability to persist and delay the onset of hydraulic failure.Corymbia calophylla populations from two contrasting climate-origins (warm-dry and cool-wet) were grown under well-watered and chronic soil water deficit treatments in large containers. Hydraulic and allometric traits were measured and then trees were dried-down to critical levels of drought stress.Significant plasticity was detected in the warm-dry population in response to water-deficit, with adjustments in drought tolerance traits that resulted in longer dry-down times from stomatal closure to 88% loss of stem hydraulic conductance (time to hydraulic failure, THF). Plasticity was limited in the cool-wet population, indicating a significant genotype-by-environment interaction in THF.Our findings contribute information on intraspecific variation in key drought tolerance traits and THF. It highlights the need to quantify adaptive capacity in populations of forest trees facing climate change-type drought to improve predictions of forest die-back. Corymbia calophylla may benefit from assisted gene migration by introducing adaptive warm-dry populations into vulnerable cool-wet population regions.

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