Adaptability of trees persists after millions of years of climate change

Document Type : Scientific News

Author

Assistant Professor, Research Division of Natural Resources , East Azarbaijan Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center , Agricultural Research, Education and Extention Organization (AREEO), Tabriz, Iran.

10.22092/irn.2025.368499.1628

Abstract

Seven of the most common forest trees in Europe have been shown to be able to shelter their genetic diversity from major shifts in environmental conditions. This is despite their ranges having shrunk and the number of trees having fallen sharply during ice age cycles. These are the findings of a study by a European consortium including Uppsala University, published in Nature Communications."From a biodiversity perspective, this is very positive because these trees are keystone species on which many other species depend," says Pascal Milesi, Associate Professor of Plant Ecology and Evolution at Uppsala University and first author of the study. The researchers aimed to investigate how the genetic diversity of tree species was affected by the ice age cycles. Trees have lived through warm and cold periods. During the last ice age, about 10,000 years ago, the range of trees was greatly reduced. Scientists therefore thought that genetic diversity would be low. However, it turned out to be just the opposite -- the species had high genetic diversity and were thus resilient to the drastic changes in their habitat.

Keywords

References

Milesi, P., Kastally, Ch., Dauphin, B., Cervantes, S., Bagnoli, F., Budde, K.B., Cavers, S., Fady, B., Faivre-Rampant, P., González-Martínez, S.C., Grivet, D., Gugerli, F., Jorge, V., Kupin, I.L., Ojeda, D.I., Olsson, S., Opgenoorth, L., Pinosio, S., Plomion, Ch., Rellstab, Ch., Rogier, O., Scalabrin, S., Scotti, I., Vendramin, G.G., Westergren, M., Lascoux, M. and Pyhäjärvi, T., 2024. Resilience of genetic diversity in forest trees over the Quaternary. Nature Communications, 15(1). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-52612-y
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/10/241014210350.htm
Iran Nature
Volume 10, Issue 1 - Serial Number 50
May and June 2025
Pages 98-99

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