Adaptation of trees to climate change

How tree species adapt to modified environmental conditions is critical to their persistence. We still lack a thorough understanding of how plasticity and genetic variation influence each other and, as a consequence, of the extinction risk of a population. Here we will study the potential of trees to adapt to climate change. We will experimentally heat seedlings and mother trees, sample seeds and clones and transplant individuals from natural populations, quantify growth and identify the genetic diversity of genes related to phenotypic traits affected by climate change. Our results provide key information to forest managers to adapt forest management to climate change.