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

MEMBRA直接响应呼吁的主题3：“联合王国树木对全球变化的适应能力”，同时也涵盖主题1和2的各个方面。记忆是获取、保持和传递指导未来行动的信息。它被人类习惯性地使用（例如，在阅读本概述时），在动物的行为中很容易检测到，并且是机器学习计算机代码的基础。谈“树的记忆”有意义吗？科学已经证明，植物可以记录并获取先前的压力记录，这使得这个短语与基因的自私或机器的（人工）智能一样值得讨论。作家和艺术家们创造性地回应了这种新知识如何改变我们与树木的关系-也许最著名的是普利策奖获奖小说“The Overstory”中的Richard Powers。这种跨科学和艺术的树记忆的想法的共同所有权，使它特别适合英国树的未来计划。与植物记忆相关的过程可能是让树木迅速适应并在人类世的快速环境变化下生存和繁荣的基础。植物记忆的印记主要是通过改变其表观遗传特征来实现的：即，发生在DNA上的改变，改变某些基因的活性，但不涉及DNA序列本身的变化。已知负责长期记忆的特定表观遗传标记，包括跨代抗性，来自DNA碱基胞嘧啶中的甲基取代氢原子。最近，一项关于白杨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记忆的潜在传递。然而，长寿的植物是否可以从压力中获得，保留和传递记忆仍然是未知的。MEMBRA将研究表观遗传变化和跨代记忆作为压力的结果，在关键树种目前在英国treescapes。不同的非生物（即干旱，霜冻，CO2浓度升高）和生物胁迫（即虫害和疾病）已被选定的基础上，我们的初步数据表明，他们改变重要的性状，如增长，在英国treescapes。该项目还将考虑到过去的经验。树木在生长过程中与环境的相互作用记录在木材中。我们将分析树木年轮和干旱胁迫的同位素标记，以可视化树木对其过去环境的反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的恢复力方面的能力。对树木压力记忆的理解开辟了新的思考途径，例如环境伦理甚至树木意识的重新概念化。MEMBRA将整理有关如何将记忆表现为树木特征的信息。该项目将研究这如何改变我们对树景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景的道德理解，以及由此产生的对树木的伦理价值如何挑战树景的功利主义和货币化的“生态系统服务”价值。MEMBRA将提供工具，以确定将导致更好的复原力和适应能力的物种和种群，从而将用于保护和种植战略。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举措。MEMBRA结果的最终融合将有助于政策制定和记忆启发的有意森林的第一阶段的繁荣：MEMBRA Treescape。

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.