| Abstract Detail
Forest Tree Responses to a Changing Climate O'Neill, Greg [1]. Assisted migration: the new normal. A growing body of evidence suggests that climate change will render many tree populations substantially maladapted in the near future, resulting in significant changes in health, productivity and distributions of foundation tree species, with attendant impacts on biodiversity, carbon sequestration and the forest industry. Assisted migration (AM) has been proposed as a forest management strategy intended to maintain ecosystem integrity by planting tree populations that are adapted to current or future plantation climate and are translocated to areas where the populations would be predicted to move naturally, were it not for anthropogenic dispersal barriers or lack of time. While controversial, AM is emerging as a key strategy to mitigate anticipated maladaptation in forests.
I will discuss the vigorous debate surrounding the risks and benefits of AM, as well as methods of predicting impacts of climate change and AM on forests, and barriers to implementation of AM. Strategies to facilitate wider adoption of AM will be addressed, including: identifying safe population migration distances, developing seed transfer systems using incomplete provenance test data, designing climate based seed transfer systems, and mitigating risk through genetic diversification of planting stock. Finally, a proposed climate based seed transfer system intended to enable province-wide use of AM in BC will be presented.
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Related Links:
assisted migration adaptation trial
1 - British Columbia Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Opera, Tree Improvement Branch, 3401 Reservoir Road, Kalamalka Forestry Centre, Vernon, BC, V1T 2X5, Canada
Keywords:
population variation
forest tree species
assisted migration
climate change
adaptation
uncertainty
genetic diversity.
Presentation Type: Symposium Presentation
Session: SY13
Location: Hall A/The Shaw Conference Centre
Date: Wednesday, July 29th, 2015
Time: 11:15 AM
Number: SY13008
Abstract ID:140
Candidate for Awards:None |
