MEMBRA: Understanding Memory of UK Treescapes for Better Resilience and Adaptation

MEMBRA直接回应了主题3：“英国树木对全球变化的弹性”，同时也涵盖了主题1和主题2的各个方面。记忆是信息的获取、保留和传递，指导未来的行动。它被人类习惯性地使用（例如在阅读本摘要时），很容易在动物的行为中检测到，并且是机器学习计算机代码的基础。谈论“树的记忆”有意义吗？科学已经证实，植物可以记录和获取先前的压力记录，这使得这句话就像基因的自私或机器的（人工）智能一样有意义。作家和艺术家们创造性地回应了这些新知识如何改变我们与树木的关系——也许最著名的是理查德·鲍尔斯在普利策奖获奖小说《上层故事》中的表现。这种跨科学和艺术的树记忆概念的共同所有权使其特别适合英国未来的树逃生计划。与植物记忆相关的过程可能是使树木迅速适应并因此在人类世的快速环境变化中生存和繁荣的基础。植物的记忆印记主要是通过改变其表观遗传特征来实现的：也就是说，DNA的变化会改变某些基因的活性，但这并不涉及DNA序列本身的变化。已知与长期记忆有关的特殊表观遗传标记，包括跨代抗性，是由DNA碱基（胞嘧啶）中的甲基取代氢原子引起的。最近，一项对杨树的研究证明了表观遗传标记的跨代维持，指出了长寿多年生植物中潜在的记忆传递。然而，长寿命植物是否能够从逆境中获得、保留和传递记忆仍是未知的。MEMBRA将研究表观遗传变化和跨代记忆，这是由于英国树木中主要树种的压力造成的。根据我们的初步数据，选择了不同的非生物（即干旱、霜冻、二氧化碳升高）和生物压力（即虫害和疾病），这些数据表明，它们改变了英国树木的重要特征，例如生长。这个项目也将考虑到过去的经验。树木在生长过程中，与环境相互作用的痕迹会被记录在木材中。我们将分析树木年轮和干旱胁迫的同位素标记，以可视化树木对过去环境响应的完整生命周期图。生态学、树木年轮和分子技术的结合将使我们能够评估以前的压力在提高英国树木恢复能力方面的能力。对树木压力记忆的理解开辟了新的思考路径，例如环境伦理的重新概念化，甚至树木意识。MEMBRA将整理关于如何将内存表示为树的特征的信息。该项目将研究这如何改变我们对树洞的进化和恢复力的理解，如何考虑和欣赏树木的记忆可以促进对树洞的道德理解，以及由此产生的树木伦理价值如何挑战树洞的功利主义和货币化的“生态系统服务”价值。MEMBRA将提供识别物种和种群的工具，这些物种和种群将带来更好的恢复力和适应性，从而将用于保护和种植策略。有了对树木记忆的思考和欣赏如何促进对树木的道德理解的知识，我们将确定并使用新的语言将树木记忆的概念纳入基于政策的倡议中。MEMBRA结果的最终聚合将为政策制定和记忆启发的意图森林的第一阶段的繁荣提供支持：MEMBRA树。

MEMBRA responds directly to Theme 3 of the call: "Resilience of UK Treescapes to global change", whilst also covering aspects of Theme 1 and 2. Memory is the acquisition, retention and transmission of information guiding future action. It is used habitually by humans (e.g. in reading this Summary), is easily detectable in the behaviour of animals, and is the basis of machine-learning computer codes. Is it meaningful to talk of the 'memory of trees'? Science has established that plants can write and access a record of prior stress, making the phrase as meaningful to discuss as the selfishness of genes or the (artificial) intelligence of a machine. Writers and artists have responded creatively to how this new knowledge is altering our relationship with trees - perhaps most notably Richard Powers in the Pulitzer Prize winning novel 'The Overstory'. This co-ownership of the idea of tree memory across science and the Arts makes it particularly suited to the Future of UK Treescapes programme. Processes related to plant memory may be fundamental in allowing treescapes to swiftly adapt and therefore survive and thrive under the rapid environmental shifts of the Anthropocene. The imprinting of memory in plants mostly happens by altering its epigenetic signature: i.e., changes that occur to the DNA that alter the activity of some genes, but that do not involve changes of the DNA sequence itself. The specific epigenetic marks known to be responsible for long-term memory, including transgenerational resistance, arise from the replacement of hydrogen atoms by methyl groups in the DNA base, cytosine. Very recently, a study in poplar has demonstrated transgenerational maintenance of epigenetic marks, pointing to a potential transmission of memory in long-lived perennial plants. However, whether long-lived plants can acquire, retain, and transmit memory from stress remains unknown. MEMBRA will study epigenetic changes and transgenerational memory as a result of stress in key tree species present in UK treescapes. Different abiotic (i.e. drought, frost, elevated CO2) and biotic stresses (i.e. insect infestation and disease) have been selected on the basis of our preliminary data showing that they alter important traits, e.g. growth, within UK treescapes. This project will also take into consideration past experiences. Trees have marks of past interactions with the environment recorded into their wood as they grow. We will analyse tree rings and isotope markers of drought stress to visualise a complete lifetime picture of the responses of trees to their past environment. The combination of ecology, tree rings and molecular techniques will allow us to assess the ability of previous stresses in improving the resilience of UK treescapes.The understanding of stress memory in trees opens new paths to consider, e.g. the re-conceptualisation of environmental ethics and even tree consciousness. MEMBRA will collate information on how memory has been represented as a characteristic of trees. The project will study how this alters our understanding of the evolution and resilience of treescapes, how a consideration and appreciation of memory in trees can foster moral understanding of treescapes, and how the resulting ethical valuing of trees challenges a utilitarian and monetised 'ecosystem services' valuation of treescapes. MEMBRA will provide the tools to identify the species and populations that will result in better resilience and adaptation and that will therefore be used in conservation and planting strategies. With the knowledge on how a consideration and appreciation of memory in trees can foster moral understanding of trees, we will identify and use new language to incorporate the concept of tree memory into policy-based initiatives. The final convergence of the results of MEMBRA will feed into policy development and the flourishing of the first stages of a memory-inspired intentional forest: the MEMBRA Treescape.