Genetics and Silvicultural Foundations for Management

Plant responses to the environment are complex, and the factors underlying these responses (genetics, physiology, management) have large impacts on forest and range health, productivity, and resilience to disturbances including climate, pathogens, and invasive species. The Genetic and Silvicultural Foundations for Management Team focuses on developing basic and applied information on these factors to inform diverse management options for forest and range plant species.

The Silvicultural Foundations for Management Team research incorporates genetics, genomics, plant biology, physiology, ecology, and silviculture to describe and predict plant spatial genetic variation and plant responses as a function of seed source, geographic location, seasonal rhythms, environmental stresses, and management practices. Predictive models from this research can be used at multiple scales to predict: (1) the geographic source of wood or other tissues in support of forensic examinations; (2) the seasonal timing of gene function, onset of spring growth, flowering, or other fitness traits; (3) population fitness due to seed movement during restoration activities; (4) and stand responses to silvicultural treatments.

Special Emphasis Areas:

• Silvicultural options for diverse management objectives, such as wildlife habitat, biodiversity, and long-term productivity and wood production. Treatments evaluated include variable density thinning, multiple tree species, release of oak from overtopping conifers, and variable retention of woody debris during timber harvest. These studies are based on large field trials. 
• Plant adaptation, including genecological studies that consider the relationship between genetic variation in adaptive traits and the climatic and ecological factors at the source locations where genotypes evolved. Also included are long-term reciprocal transplant studies that evaluate fitness as a function of the environmental distance between germplasm source and planting locations. 
• Plant physiological, and phenological responses to climatic extremes (e.g., temperature or aridity). These studies are based on growth-chamber, greenhouse, and field trials. 
• Plant molecular, physiological, and phenological responses to daily, seasonal, and annual variation in light and temperature. These studies include a combination of measurements (molecular genetic, physiological, morphological) from plants grown in growth-chamber, greenhouses, and field trials. 
• Genomic approaches for identifying taxonomic and geographic sources of wood, plant tissues, and metaorganisms from complex environmental media like water.