Strumenti genomici, approcci statistici per analizzare il ruolo della demografia e della selezione nella formazione della diversità genetica (DBA.AD002.387)

Thematic area

Biology, agriculture and food sciences

Project area

Structure responsible for the research project

Institute of plant genetics (IBBR)

Project manager

GIOVANNIGIUSEPPE VENDRAMIN
Phone number: 0555225728
Email: giovanni.vendramin@ibbr.cnr.it

Abstract

There is a consistent picture of climate change (CC) over the Mediterranean: forecasted changes in precipitation and temperature have intensified drought scenarios, which are expected to have detrimental effects on trees and forest communities. Indeed, recent reviews and several experimental studies highlighted the potential of increasing drought and climate warming to cause extensive forest decline. Forests provide a multitude of important benefits and ecosystem services in terms of climate regulation, recreation, biodiversity, fresh water supply, among the others. Many of these ecosystem services could be greatly impaired by CC through profound impacts on forest structure and function. General upward and pole-ward distributional shift for many species is predicted, coupled with a pronounced fragmentation of species' range at the southern edge. In Italy, a series of important effects are expected, particularly at low altitudes: a significant reduction in growth and reproduction, higher vulnerability to fires of Pinus sp. and Quercus ilex forests, a transition from Mediterranean closed-canopy macchia to scattered shrublands, as well as local extinction of coastal populations of mes

Goals

The overall goal of the project is to enhance knowledge, methods and tools to safeguard important forest tree species in Italy, through the assessment of the role of local adaptation and genetic diversity and associated functional and adaptive traits variability.
The specific aims are:
i) understanding the role of local adaptation, the spatial scale at which it occurs, how it responds to environmental factors, and how genetic diversity and phenotypic trait diversity co-vary at different spatial scales;
ii) defining tools that incorporate genetic, phenotypic and environmental information to better define in-situ and ex-situ conservation strategies, breeding zones and genetically sustainable forest management practices;
iii) producing knowledge to support decision for collection exchange, and use of forest tree propagation material, and to define dynamic conservation units (DCU) for key forest species in Italy.

Start date of activity

19/01/2021

Keywords

genetic diversity, demography, phenotypic traits

Last update: 07/07/2025