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      Time to get moving: assisted gene flow of forest trees

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          Abstract

          Geographic variation in trees has been investigated since the mid‐18th century. Similar patterns of clinal variation have been observed along latitudinal and elevational gradients in common garden experiments for many temperate and boreal species. These studies convinced forest managers that a ‘local is best’ seed source policy was usually safest for reforestation. In recent decades, experimental design, phenotyping methods, climatic data and statistical analyses have improved greatly and refined but not radically changed knowledge of clines. The maintenance of local adaptation despite high gene flow suggests selection for local adaptation to climate is strong. Concerns over maladaptation resulting from climate change have motivated many new genecological and population genomics studies; however, few jurisdictions have implemented assisted gene flow (AGF), the translocation of pre‐adapted individuals to facilitate adaptation of planted forests to climate change. Here, we provide evidence that temperate tree species show clines along climatic gradients sufficiently similar for average patterns or climate models to guide AGF in the absence of species‐specific knowledge. Composite provenancing of multiple seed sources can be used to increase diversity and buffer against future climate uncertainty. New knowledge will continue to refine and improve AGF as climates warm further.

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          Most cited references31

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          Conserving biodiversity under climate change: the rear edge matters.

          Modern climate change is producing poleward range shifts of numerous taxa, communities and ecosystems worldwide. The response of species to changing environments is likely to be determined largely by population responses at range margins. In contrast to the expanding edge, the low-latitude limit (rear edge) of species ranges remains understudied, and the critical importance of rear edge populations as long-term stores of species' genetic diversity and foci of speciation has been little acknowledged. We review recent findings from the fossil record, phylogeography and ecology to illustrate that rear edge populations are often disproportionately important for the survival and evolution of biota. Their ecological features, dynamics and conservation requirements differ from those of populations in other parts of the range, and some commonly recommended conservation practices might therefore be of little use or even counterproductive for rear edge populations.
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            Genetic rescue to the rescue.

            Genetic rescue can increase the fitness of small, imperiled populations via immigration. A suite of studies from the past decade highlights the value of genetic rescue in increasing population fitness. Nonetheless, genetic rescue has not been widely applied to conserve many of the threatened populations that it could benefit. In this review, we highlight recent studies of genetic rescue and place it in the larger context of theoretical and empirical developments in evolutionary and conservation biology. We also propose directions to help shape future research on genetic rescue. Genetic rescue is a tool that can stem biodiversity loss more than has been appreciated, provides population resilience, and will become increasingly useful if integrated with molecular advances in population genomics.
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              Carbon dynamics in trees: feast or famine?

              Research on the degree to which carbon (C) availability limits growth in trees, as well as recent trends in climate change and concurrent increases in drought-related tree mortality, have led to a renewed focus on the physiological mechanisms associated with tree growth responses to current and future climate. This has led to some dispute over the role of stored non-structural C compounds as indicators of a tree's current demands for photosynthate. Much of the uncertainty surrounding this issue could be resolved by developing a better understanding of the potential functions of non-structural C stored within trees. In addition to functioning as a buffer to reconcile temporal asynchrony between C demand and supply, the storage of non-structural C compounds may be under greater regulation than commonly recognized. We propose that in the face of environmental stochasticity, large, long-lived trees may require larger C investments in storage pools as safety margins than previously recognized, and that an important function of these pools may be to maintain hydraulic transport, particularly during episodes of severe stress. If so, survival and long-term growth in trees remain a function of C availability. Given that drought, freeze-thaw events and increasing tree height all impose additional constraints on vascular transport, the common trend of an increase in non-structural carbohydrate concentrations with tree size, drought or cold is consistent with our hypothesis. If the regulated maintenance of relatively large constitutive stored C pools in trees serves to maintain hydraulic integrity, then the minimum thresholds are expected to vary depending on the specific tissues, species, environment, growth form and habit. Much research is needed to elucidate the extent to which allocation of C to storage in trees is a passive vs. an active process, the specific functions of stored C pools, and the factors that drive active C allocation to storage.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Evol Appl
                Evol Appl
                10.1111/(ISSN)1752-4571
                EVA
                Evolutionary Applications
                John Wiley and Sons Inc. (Hoboken )
                1752-4571
                24 August 2015
                January 2016
                : 9
                : 1 , Women's contribution to basic and applied evolutionary biology ( doiID: 10.1111/eva.2016.9.issue-1 )
                : 271-290
                Affiliations
                [ 1 ] Department of Forest and Conservation SciencesUniversity of British Columbia Vancouver BCCanada
                [ 2 ] Department of Ecology and Evolutionary BiologyUniversity of Michigan Ann Arbor MIUSA
                Author notes
                [*] [* ] Correspondence

                Sally N. Aitken, Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences, University of British Columbia, 3041‐2424 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada.

                Tel.: +1‐604‐8226020;

                fax: +1‐604‐8229102;

                e‐mail: sally.aitken@ 123456ubc.ca

                Article
                EVA12293
                10.1111/eva.12293
                4780373
                27087852
                fb852330-dccf-441f-90ad-92e9fa23bcca
                © 2015 The Authors. Evolutionary Applications published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

                This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

                History
                : 20 March 2015
                : 22 June 2015
                Page count
                Pages: 20
                Funding
                Funded by: NSERC Discovery Grant
                Funded by: Genome Canada
                Funded by: Genome BC
                Funded by: NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award
                Categories
                Review and Syntheses
                Review and Syntheses
                Custom metadata
                2.0
                eva12293
                January 2016
                Converter:WILEY_ML3GV2_TO_NLMPMC version:4.8.4 mode:remove_FC converted:07.03.2016

                Evolutionary Biology
                assisted migration,climate change,ecological genetics,forest policy,genetic clines,local adaptation,provenance,temperate species

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