Assessment of Genetic Resources for Managing, Conserving, and Restoring North American Conifers: A Call to Action
| Authors: | David B. Neale, Sally N. Aitken, J. Bradley St. Clair, C. Dana Nelson, J. Jesús Vargas Hernández, Patrick E. McGuire |
| Year: | 2025 |
| Type: | Scientific Journal |
| Station: | Southern Research Station |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1007/s44392-025-00028-x |
| Source: | Journal of Forestry |
Abstract
Changing climate is impacting the health and sustainability of forests throughout the world. It is important for forest resource managers to have abundant and accurate information about the standing, changing, and adaptive genetic diversity of forest tree populations to successfully manage and restore species impacted by climate change, invasive species, and forest fragmentation. This can only be accomplished if genetic resources are widely available for impacted species. For a small number of commercially important conifer species in North America, such resources have been reasonably well developed. However, for nearly all other conifer species, critical genetic resources are limited or completely absent. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List classification of Near Threatened or worse (Vulnerable, Endangered, Critically Endangered) includes many conifer species in North America. We have compiled an inventory of genetic resources available to researchers for these and other at-risk conifer species. With a few important exceptions, such resources barely exist for nearly all of them. We discuss the importance of genetics for managing and restoring forests under climate change and provide a call to action for researchers and managers to develop and implement a coordinated protocol for conserving and restoring the most at-risk conifers.