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

Mbra直接回应了号召的主题3：“英国应对全球变化的应变能力”，同时也涵盖了主题1和2的各个方面。记忆是指导未来行动的信息的获取、保留和传输。它被人类习惯性地使用(例如，在阅读本摘要时)，很容易从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，植物可以写入和获取先前压力的记录，这使得这个短语像讨论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一新知识如何改变我们与树的关系--也许最著名的是普利策奖获奖小说《覆盖故事》中的理查德·鲍尔斯。这种在科学和艺术领域共同拥有树记忆的想法，使其特别适合英国未来的树之逃逸计划。与植物记忆相关的过程可能是使树突逃逸迅速适应并因此在人类世快速环境变化中生存和繁荣的基础。在植物中记忆的印记主要是通过改变其表观遗传特征发生的：即发生在DNA上的改变，改变了一些基因的活性，但不涉及DNA序列本身的改变。已知的负责长期记忆的特定表观遗传标记，包括跨代抵抗力，产生于DNA碱基胞嘧啶中的甲基取代氢原子。最近，在杨树上的一项研究证明了表观遗传标记的跨代维持，指出在长寿的多年生植物中存在潜在的记忆传递。然而，长寿植物能否从逆境中获得、保持和传递记忆仍是未知的。Mbra将研究由于英国树种中存在的关键树种的压力而导致的表观遗传变化和跨代记忆。根据我们的初步数据，我们选择了不同的非生物(如干旱、霜冻、二氧化碳升高)和生物应激(如虫害和疾病)，这些应激反应改变了英国树枝的重要特征，如生长。该项目还将考虑过去的经验。随着树木的生长，它们的木材上记录着过去与环境相互作用的痕迹。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的反应的完整生命图景。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逃生能力方面的能力。了解树木中的压力记忆开辟了新的途径来考虑，例如重新概念化环境伦理，甚至树木意识。Mbra将整理有关记忆如何被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枝逃逸的进化和适应能力的理解，考虑和欣赏树木的记忆如何促进对树枝逃逸的道德理解，以及由此产生的树木伦理价值如何挑战对树枝逃逸的功利化和货币化的‘生态系统服务’估值。膜将提供识别物种和种群的工具，这些物种和种群将产生更好的复原力和适应能力，因此将用于保护和种植战略。随着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。膜的结果的最终汇聚将有助于政策的制定和记忆启发的故意森林的第一阶段的蓬勃发展：膜的树枝。

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.