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

LTREB：栎树表型可塑性、局部适应和气候响应的长期起源研究 (Q-PLAD)

• 批准号: 2232794
• 负责人: Victoria Sork
• 金额: $ 64.12万
• 依托单位: University of California-Los Angeles
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-01-01 至 2027-12-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2232794&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: LTREB; Long; term; provenance; study

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.

这项研究提供了一种独特的加州特有树种--山谷橡树(Quercus Lobata)--对气候变化的反应。气候是生物体赖以生存的环境的重要组成部分。树木面临着独特的挑战，因为它们寿命很长，一旦站稳脚跟，它们要么忍受当地的气候，要么死亡。考虑到树木和森林景观的生态、经济和内在价值，了解树木如何响应和适应新的或不断变化的条件对于制定保护和管理战略至关重要。这样的信息只能通过像这个项目这样的长期实验来获得，在这个项目中，将收集一大批山谷橡树的生长、存活和种子生产数据，这些树是从整个物种范围内收集的橡子长出来的，然后种植到两个大的田地里。此外，这项研究的结果将为来自STEM中代表性不足的群体的学生提供培训。10年前，对栎树进行了一项长期研究，使用了来自95个地点的11,000个橡子样本和来自该物种范围内的672棵母本树木。该项目继续这项被称为Q-PLAD的长期研究，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随着当地和来源的气候条件而变化。在未来5-10年内，该项目将：(1)建立一个综合数据系统，以存档现有和未来的数据集，并便利公共数据的获得和分析；(2)有力地测试关于叶片和花朵出现的可塑性以及这些性状与气候有关的地方适应的假说；(3)开展重点实验，以评估与气候有关的功能性状的可塑性和适应性；(4)确定与气候有关的各种健康因素的地方适应程度。Q-PLAD解决了进化生物学中关于表型可塑性和局部适应的进化的基本问题。此外，这些发现将增强我们对如何维持树木种群健康的理解，这些树木种群保护关键栖息地并确保碳捕获，以帮助减少人类造成的碳排放。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。