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Adaptation and host-parasite interactions of oak trees in the climate change - APEK
Project
Project code: 28WB400201-3
Contract period: 01.01.2014
- 31.10.2017
Budget: 375,000 Euro
Purpose of research: Applied research
Climate change will have a decisive impact on our forests. For example, oak trees will probably take over sites from other tree species with inadequate growth under climate constraints. However, will our proven origins always get along with increased aridity? Or do we have to switch over to specialized drought tolerant oaks?
Insufficient growth will pose severe economic problems to forestry enterprises. Drought tolerant provenances only would mean a dramatic loss in biodiversity. Only the right trade-off between these two constraints will lead to sustainable future decisions. For this purpose we have to learn more about the oak trees in terms of physiolog-ical adaptation potential versus genetic determination. Therefore it is the first objective of the project to charac-terize the drought response of oak trees from sites differing in aridity.
It is well established, that the drought resistance of oaks depends on osmoregulation, the antioxidative system and on tannins. Oaks meet drought through an accumulation of osmotically active substances. Under drought they suffer from oxidative stress that is scavenged by a cascade of specialized antioxidants and enzymes like e. g. ascorbate (vitamine C). Under arid climates there are increased tannin contents in the oaks. Tannins are also said to have a negative effect on larval performance of herbivore insects prone to mass outbreaks. Defoliation by these insects often leads to severe secondary damages. Therefore the project will characterize water status, osmo-regulation, antioxidative system and host-parasite interactions of oaks from sites of different aridities. This will give hints to the physiological adaptation potential versus genetic determination of these provenances.
Climate change is mostly driven through atmospheric CO2 enrichment. This will make oak trees vice versa better meet drought constraints. They can close their stomata for longer periods without suffering from CO2 starvation. The antioxidative system has less basic load. However, until now it is unknown, how oak tannins respond to elevated CO2. Therefore it is the second objective of the project to learn more about the ecophysiology and sys-tem ecology of oak trees under elevated CO2. For this purpose selected oak origins are cultivated in a CO2 envi-ronment that equals tomorrow’s world.
The project will give hints to practitioners in how far they can cling to the approved autochthonous oak origins in the future and where they better switch to so called drought oaks. Furthermore oak wood processing industries will gain knowledge about the chemical properties of the oak wood to come in future. This holds especially true for the cooperage industry, being part of the most important rhenish-palatine oak timber including value chain. The project will not make decisions for oak forest managers. It will, however, help to meet the right on-site deci-sions.
Section overview
Subjects
- Silviculture
- Agricultural hydrology
- Climate Change
