Potential for evolutionary responses to climate change – evidence from tree populations

By F. Alberto, S. Aitken, R. Alía, S. González‐Martínez, H. Hänninen, A. Kremer, F. Lefèvre, Thomas Lenormand, Sam Yeaman, R. Whetten and 1 more. Global Change Biology, 2013

874 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Evolutionary responses are required for tree populations to be able to track climate change. Results of 250 years of common garden experiments show that most forest trees have evolved local adaptation, as evidenced by the adaptive differentiation of populations in quantitative traits, reflecting environmental conditions of population origins. On the basis of the patterns of quantitative variation for 19 adaptation‐related traits studied in 59 tree species (mostly temperate and boreal species from the Northern hemisphere), we found that genetic differentiation between populations and clinal variation along environmental gradients were very common (respectively, 90% and 78% of cases). Thus, responding to climate change will likely require that the quantitative traits of populations again match their environments. We examine what kind of information is needed for evaluating the potential to respond, and what information is already available. We review the genetic models related to selection responses, and what is known currently about the genetic basis of the traits. We address special problems to be found at the range margins, and highlight the need for more modeling to understand specific issues at southern and northern margins. We need new common garden experiments for less known species. For extensively studied species, new experiments are needed outside the current ranges. Improving genomic information will allow better prediction of responses. Competitive and other interactions within species and interactions between species deserve more consideration. Despite the long generation times, the strong background in quantitative genetics and growing genomic resources make forest trees useful species for climate change research. The greatest adaptive response is expected when populations are large, have high genetic variability, selection is strong, and there is ecological opportunity for establishment of better adapted genotypes.

Subfields: Ecological Modeling, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Genetics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/63f7675a2c25e84acb59df2340a33567c1f5cd68

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Citations in the corpus

Genetic differentiation and plasticity interact along temperature and precipitation gradients to determine plant performance under climate change (2017, background): “…suggesting the importance of climate for performance of various rare as well as widespread species (e.g. FournierLevel et al. 2011; Bennington et al. 2012; Kim & Donohue 2013; Mendola et al. 2015; Malyshev et al. 2016) and reviews of older studies in Hereford (2009) and Alberto et al. (2013).”
The role of forest genetic resources in responding to biotic and abiotic factors in the context of anthropogenic climate change (2014, background): “…2008) tolerance, cold-hardiness, resistance to pests and diseases, and flowering and fruiting period, have been shown to vary across ecological and geographic gradients to an extent that may be as important as the differences observed amongst species (Alberto et al., 2013; Petit and Hampe, 2006).”
Assisted Gene Flow to Facilitate Local Adaptation to Climate Change (2013, background): “AGF can also reduce the loss of genetic diversity and lineages by migrating individuals from divergent rear edge populations at high risk of extirpation (Hampe & Petit 2005, Alberto et al. 2013) into populations that have a higher probability of persisting.”
Patterns of phenotypic plasticity and local adaptation in the wide elevation range of the alpine plant Arabis alpina (2018, background): “Another efficient mechanism to cope with environmental changes is phenotypic plasticity (Charmantier et al., 2008; Alberto et al., 2013), i.e. the ability of a given genotype to express different phenotype according to some environmental cues or circumstances.”
Conservation implications of ecological responses to extreme weather and climate events (2018, background): “The characteristics of intact habitats across land and sea help to maximize species dispersal, gene flow and genetic adaptation (Alberto et al., 2013; Lawler et al., 2015; Sgro, Lowe, & Hoffmann, 2011).”
The genomics of local adaptation in trees: are we out of the woods yet? (2017, methodology): “…(e.g., bud flush, bud set), juvenile performance (e.g., germination rate, seed traits) and physiology (e.g., cold hardiness, water-use efficiency) have all been shown to be under moderate to high genetic control (reviewed in Corn-elius 1994, Howe et al. 2003, Alberto et al. 2013; this review).”
Where, why and how? Explaining the low‐temperature range limits of temperate tree species (2016, background): “In spite of the presumably high gene flow that occurs along elevational gradients (Alberto et al. 2013; Pluess et al. 2016), the common garden experiments revealed small, but consistent genetic (ecotypic) differentiation of spring phenology among provenances of seedlings originating from different e”
Comparative genetic responses to climate in the varieties of Pinus ponderosa and Pseudotsuga menziesii: Clines in growth potential (2014, background): “This is because many locations expected to remain suitable throughout the century for a species are, in fact, inhabited today by genotypes that are destined to be poorly suited to the future climate (Rehfeldt et al., 1999, St Clair and Howe, 2007, Alberto et al., 2013).”
Large-scale recruitment limitation in Mediterranean pines: the role of Quercus ilex and forest successional advance as key regional drivers (2014, background): “…phenotypically plastic responses, genetic variation and evolutionary adaptation of local populations (Soto et al., 2010; Carnicer et al., 2012; Alberto et al., 2013; García-Valdés et al., 2013); the study of gene flow over geographical ranges (Kremer et al., 2012); the consideration of…”
Forests and global change: what can genetics contribute to the major forest management and policy challenges of the twenty-first century? (2016, background): “The long life span of trees makes them susceptible to both short- and long-term environmental disturbances (Alberto et al. 2013).”
Temperate and boreal forest tree phenology: from organ-scale processes to terrestrial ecosystem models (2016, background): “Bud-set of boreal trees tends to occur earlier than in temperate trees, and within species, populations from higher latitudes or elevations exhibit earlier bud-set (Alberto et al. 2013).”