LTREB: Long-term provenance study of phenotypic plasticity, local adaptation, and response to climate in Quercus (Q-PLAD)

这项研究提供了一个独特的分析广泛的加州特有的树，山谷橡树（栎），气候变化的反应。气候是生物生存环境的重要组成部分。树木面临着独特的挑战，因为它们是长寿的，一旦它们建立起来，它们必须忍受当地的气候或死亡。鉴于树木和森林景观的生态、经济和固有价值，了解树木如何应对和适应新的或不断变化的条件对于制定保护和管理策略至关重要。这些信息只能通过长期的实验来获得，比如这个项目，在这个项目中，将收集大量的山谷橡树的生长、存活和种子生产数据，这些橡树是从整个物种范围内收集的橡子生长出来的，并种植在两个大的田间地块中。此外，这项研究的结果将为来自STEM代表性不足的群体的学生提供培训。10年前，一项关于野山栎的长期研究建立了，使用了从95个地点取样的11,000个橡子和672棵来自该物种范围的母本树。该项目继续这项长期研究，称为Q-PLAD，以确定特定的气候相关性状，生长，存活和种子生产如何在半同胞家庭内部和之间变化，与当地和来源的气候条件有关。在未来5-10年，该项目将：（1）建立一个综合数据系统，将现有和未来的数据集存档，并促进公共数据的可用性和分析;（2）强有力地测试关于叶和花出现的可塑性以及这些性状与气候相关的地方适应性的假设;（3）进行重点实验，以评估与气候相关的功能性状的可塑性和适应性;以及（4）确定与气候相关的各种适合度组分的当地适应程度。Q-PLAD解决了进化生物学中有关表型可塑性和局部适应性进化的基本问题。此外，这些发现将提高我们对如何维持树木种群健康的理解，以保护关键栖息地，并确保碳捕获，以帮助减少人为造成的碳排放。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This study provides a unique analysis of the response of a widespread California endemic tree, valley oak (Quercus lobata), to a changing climate. Climate is a critical component of the environments where organisms live. Trees face unique challenges because they are long-lived and once they become established, they must either tolerate the local climate or die. Given the ecological, economic, and inherent value of trees and forested landscapes, understanding how trees respond and adapt to new or changing conditions is crucial to inform conservation and management strategies. Such information can only be gained through long-term experiments such as this project, where growth, survival, and seed production data will be collected on a large set of valley oak trees, grown from acorns gathered from throughout the species range and planted into two large field plots. Also, the results of this study will provide training of students from groups that are underrepresented in STEM.Ten years ago, a long-term study of Quercus lobata, was established using 11,000 acorns sampled from 95 localities and 672 maternal trees from across the species’ range. This project continues this long-term study, dubbed Q-PLAD, to determine how specific climate-associated traits, growth, survival, and seed production vary within and among half-sib families in relation to local and source climatic conditions. Over the next 5-10 years, the project will: (1) establish an integrated data system to archive existing and future datasets and facilitate public data availability and analysis; (2) robustly test hypotheses about plasticity in leaf and flower emergence and climate-associated local adaptation in those traits; (3) conduct focal experiments to assess plasticity and adaptation in climate-associated functional traits; and (4) determine the extent of local adaptation in various fitness components associated with climate. Q-PLAD addresses fundamental questions in evolutionary biology concerning the evolution of phenotypic plasticity and local adaptation. In addition, these findings will enhance our understanding of how to sustain the health of tree populations that protect key habitats and ensures carbon capture to help mitigate human-caused carbon emissions.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.