Activity No 5 Questionnaire on efficiency on assessment of Adaptive Traits Fulvio Ducci (Partner 12), & Darius Danusevicius (Partner 15), Gerry Douglas (Partner 14), Luc Paques (Partner 1), Workshop on

Many different definitions can be found about adaptation and adaptive traits: Adaptive Trait: a genetic trait that helps an organism to maximize its reproductive success.genetictraitorganism The Oxford Dictionary of Science : "Any change in the structure or functioning of an organism that makes it better suited to its environment". Adaptation is the evolutionary process whereby an organism becomes better able to live in its habitat or habitats.habitat Adaptedness is the state of being adapted: the degree to which an organism is able to live and reproduce in a given set of habitats. An adaptive trait is an aspect of the developmental pattern of the organism which enables or enhances the probability of that organism surviving and reproducing.

Some definition more… Adaptation: Adjustment of a gene pool of a population to a given environment (i.e. ecotypes of spruce adapted to low altitude climate or to high altitude mountain climate) (Nanson 2004). Phenology: The study of the timing of periodic phenomena such as flowering, growth initiation, growth cessation, etc., especially as related to seasonal changes in temperature, photoperiod, etc. (Wright 1976, Nanson 2004). Anyway, TBDX Lab. doesn’t consider phenology only………

Regional sharing of Species Monitoring

TBDX species monitored and Partners involved: Pab, Fsy, Fex and Pme are the most investigated, followed by Pav, Pop, Psy. Mainly nordic or higher elevation species.

The pattern of Partners involved in TBDX influences also the higner weight of nosrthern species Where the monitoring is carried out

3.9 Other traits or related characters mentioned by Partners Related to:. 1. Maintainance of Apical dominance; 2.Occurence of spikeknots (autumn-winter frosts) or double tops; 3.Resistance to diseases, 4. Resistance or avoidance of stress/pests/diseases; 5. August St. John shoots, 6 fructification, 7 Needle cast; 8. Cell cycle ; 9. Fructification; 10. Needle colour.

5. Also Commercial plantations and in greenhouses

Timing

Investigated for 10 species: Aglu,Bpe,Fex,Jre,Pab,Pav,Pop,Pra,Psy and Qro

6c. Chilling & photoperiod requirements are the amount of hours or days passed under a minimum stage of temperature or a minimum/maximum day duration used by trees as a reference for their phenological traits Requirements depend on origin of the tested Species/variety. Minimum requirements can vary according to the altitude and the latitude of provenance and probably according to the single genotype. Flowering, Flower receptivity, Seed germination, Bud set, Bud break, Flushing, Growth cessation and related traits depend on or are influenced by photoperiod, termoperiod, moisture distribution and, in southern countries, on water supply in summer. Those factor can work alone but also combined. Most of forest species seem to be unknown by forest tree breeders from this point of view (is that true?). Only Norway spruce, Scots Pine, beech, wild cherry, walnut and chestnut are quite known. But it is possible having information for Silver fir, Douglas fir, Larch….

Monitoring in multisite networks is prevailing.

Provenances and progenies are the most investigated

For phenologycal stages, crown sector, number of trees monitored and skill of people are the focal points togheter with clear scoring methods.

12. Advantages: Organization aspects: Quick e cheap. Good base for statistical evaluations. Repeatability and comparability. Photographs allow a relatively fast assessment. Easy measurements and a high number of data for statistical analysis. No needed a great experience and hard training Methodological and scientific advantages: Indication of how well matched the source is to local conditions. Improvements: possibility of analysing the within specie/population variability. Rather fast, good heritability and thus high precision of breeding value estimates. Relatively stable assessment Good heritability and thus high precision of breeding value estimates. The scoring makes it possible to apply quantitative genetic analysis. A help in the understanding of mating patterns and seed production. No needed a great experience J-M correlation is very high, thus no need for many repeated measuments. Correlated with stem quality aspects Knowledge, may provide physiological understanding. It can help for understanding the provenances range.

13. Major Problems Organization Problems Calibration of the team members and Subjective assessment if changing monitoring teams/persons. Time consuming. Need to assess at the right time of the year per each site. Distances from the sites. Size of trees: trees must not be too high so you can reach the upper part of the crowns without major problem. Using scoring at the ‘right time’ especially with field tests far from the institute without anybody to observe the plantation. Problems connected with the traits or the biology of trees Time of phenology stages varies by year, needed to repeat several years. Different phenology stages on different parts of a crown, Some traits such as bud set and bud burst are very difficult to assess. In some years (hot springs) too short time to distinguish different stages, Deviation of phenology due to frost damages. The measurements will have to be repeteated in case of differences in days in bud burst. Some data can be lost because of: late frost damage of flower. the disparition of some monitored trees. For some trait as top budburst problem is when it has internal damaged. Differences in survival and phenology maybe caused not only by differences in adaptation and adaptability but by chance or site difference too. Weather conditions – sometimes because of long winter, the most trees start flushing at the same time (small diversification); the same in autumn with leaves coloring because of early hard frosts.

14. What are the benefits of using phenological monitoring ? Better register of the adaptive capacity of the species. Climate change assessment at different scales. Responses of the population and of the off-springs in new environmental conditions. selections of genotypes of suitable growth rhythm for specific constant or variable environments/climates and thus improving growth, quality of stems and wood. Particularly bud break and bud set are important variables explaining the geographic differentiation of different species. Their meaning varies with the latitude and altitude. variation in responses of parental species and hybrids to climate Very stable traits in time with few observations needed, and strongly related to genetic structure. It may give the answer to the question, which populations you can move to the other (worse or more variable) conditions, which is very important in situation of possible climate changes. select material adapted to local conditions for drought or frost tolerant, high yield, low forking defect, etc. flowering synchrony for seed orchards for flowering, to integrate genetic data variation with adaptive traits variation. Linking these ground-based observations with the view from space could enhance our capacity to track the biotic response to climate changes. Trends to earlier spring arrivals include changes in plant species composition, changes in timing and distribution of pests and disease, and potentially disrupted ecological interactions.

Everybody agree with the importance of monitoring for its correlation with quality traits and for the new challenges related to the climate change effects

Conclusion: Phenology is the main driver of tree adaptation. It is linked to many adaptive, architectural and perhaps wood traits. Moreover, heritability of phenology is, by far, the highest among all other traits.Additional experimental plots (provenance/progeny/clonal trials) will be established in the future with other species refering to the climate change problem; the importance of other methods like MAS will increase – both methods should complete each other. Assessment of plasticity/stability in the scope of climate change. Possible climate changes and needs for populations or species with higher plasticity, more resistant to frosts or other unfavourable factors.

Possible future actions: Nearest future: publishing these results somewhere (Who?....) Next steps: Establishing a TBDX European Phenology Network based on the international trials? Needed to continue the maintainance and the estabòishment of international common trials on model species. It has been possible in the XIX century, why not nowadays? Monitoring should be carried out on ex situ, but also on in situ origin populations.

Leuven: Reporting methods of record, pictures d guidelines; Having god meth. References; Reccomendations late frost, early frosts, bud break, bud set, flush, flowering, color 2 page of description of pictures and protocol by traits and species Physiology studies related to phenolgical aspects?