Blending ecology and evolution using emerging technologies to determine species distributions with a non-native pathogen in a changing climate

Abstract

A collaborative team of researchers from the United States and Mexico has begun an exciting new research project funded by The National Science Foundation’s Macrosystems Biology program. The project will study ecological and evolutionary processes affecting the distribution of southwestern white pine (Pinus strobiformis), an important tree species of mixed conifer forests in the southwest United States and Mexico. Southwestern white pine sustainability is threatened by changing climate, and a non-native tree disease, white pine blister rust caused by Cronartium ribicola. White pine blister rust causes extensive tree decline and mortality where it occurs in North America, including an ever-expanding area where it overlaps with southwestern white pine. In addition, climate may be changing too rapidly for southwestern white pine to adapt. The dual threats of a changing climate and an invasive species make forecasting future tree distributions across continental scales an urgent challenge. The goal of our research is to determine how gene movement among populations, adaptation to disease and drought, heritable changes beyond DNA mutations, and a changing environment interact to govern the success of southwestern white pine. This project is developing tools to help forecast and manage the future of the species, including genomics, common gardens, tree disease resistance testing, engineering and technology innovation to measure drought tolerance, and computer modeling in landscape ecology and genomics. The research team will use the Southwest Experimental Garden Array, a new genetics-based research platform that allows scientists to quantify the ecological and evolutionary responses of species to changing climate conditions. The research approach will provide a prototype for forecasting complex system behavior applicable to other systems, including those facing similar ecological challenges, and will contribute directly to the conservation of southwestern white pine while strengthening cross-border research and management efforts in forest conservation. This work is partially supported by the National Science Foundation under Grants No. EF-1442597, EF-1442486 and EF-1442456 and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service’s Special Technology Development Program.

Parent Publication

• Gene conservation of tree species—banking on the future. Proceedings of a workshop.

Citation

Waring, K.; Cushman, S.; Eckert, A.; Flores-Renteria, L.; Lintz, H.; Sniezko, R.; Still, C.; Wehenkel, C.; Whipple, A.; Wing, M. 2017. Blending ecology and evolution using emerging technologies to determine species distributions with a non-native pathogen in a changing climate. In: Sniezko, Richard A.; Man, Gary; Hipkins, Valerie; Woeste, Keith; Gwaze, David; Kliejunas, John T.; McTeague, Brianna A., tech. cords. 2017. Gene conservation of tree species—banking on the future. Proceedings of a workshop. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR-963. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. p. 205.