Accelerating Adaptation of Forest Trees to Climate Change Using Individual Tree Response Functions

Area of Science:

• Forestry science
• Climate change adaptation
• Forest genetics

Background:

• Assisted migration is a strategy to enhance forest tree adaptation to climate change.
• Current methods focus on adaptive variation among populations, overlooking within-population diversity.
• European larch (Larix decidua) is a key species for timber production and ecosystem services in Europe.

Purpose of the Study:

• To integrate intra-population genetic variation into assisted migration strategies.
• To predict individual genetic performance of European larch across diverse climatic conditions.
• To enhance the adaptive capacity of forest tree populations facing climate change.

Main Methods:

• Utilized progeny trials of European larch across 21 test sites in Austria.
• Combined response function methodology with in-situ breeding.
• Quantified intra-population genetic variance and predicted individual genetic performance along climatic gradients.

Main Results:

• Successfully quantified intra-population genetic variance in European larch.
• Developed predictions of individual genetic performance across a climatic gradient.
• Demonstrated the potential to capture both among- and within-population adaptive variation.

Conclusions:

• The integrated approach enhances the speed of adaptation for forest tree breeding programs.
• This methodology can be widely adopted for forest conservation and reforestation under climate change.
• Incorporating individual genetic variation is crucial for effective assisted migration.