Forest stand productivity derived from site conditions: an assessment of old Douglas-fir stands (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco var. menziesii) in Central Europe.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: Key message
SUBMITTER: Eckhart T
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6394740 | biostudies-literature | 2019
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Forest stand productivity derived from site conditions: an assessment of old Douglas-fir stands (<i>Pseudotsuga menziesii</i> (Mirb.) Franco var. <i>menziesii</i>) in Central Europe.
Eckhart Tamara T Pötzelsberger Elisabeth E Koeck Roland R Thom Dominik D Lair Georg J GJ van Loo Marcela M Hasenauer Hubert H
Annals of forest science 20190220 1
<h4>Key message</h4> <b>Douglas-fir growth correlates with the climate, the soil moisture regime, and the soil nutrient status, reflecting a broad physiological amplitude. Even though planting this non-native tree species is suggested as a viable strategy to improve adaptiveness of European forests to a more extreme climate and to assure future productivity, the expected temperature increase may induce a decline in forest stand productivity for Douglas-fir in already warm and dry reg ...[more]
Similar Datasets
Project description:Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco) is a non-native tree species in Slovenia with the potential to partially replace Norway spruce in our native forests. Compared to spruce, it has several advantages in terms of volume growth, wood quality and tolerance to drought. This is important given the changing climate in which spruce is confronted with serious problems caused by increasing temperatures and drought stress. At three sites (one on non-carbonate bedrock and deep soils, and two on limestone with soil layers of varying depths), 20 Douglas-fir and 20 spruce per site were sampled in order to compare their radial growth response to climate and drought events. The radial growth of Douglas-fir exceeds that of spruce by about 20% on comparable sites. It is more responsive to climate than spruce. Above-average temperatures in February and March have a significant positive effect on the radial growth of Douglas-fir. In recent decades, above-average summer precipitation has also had a positive influence on the radial growth of Douglas-fir. Compared to spruce, Douglas-fir is less sensitive to extreme drought events. Our results indicate that Douglas-fir may be a good substitute for spruce in semi-natural managed forest stands in Slovenia. The planting of Douglas-fir should be allowed in Slovenian forests, but the proportion of it in forest stands should be kept lower than is the case with spruce today.
| S-EPMC9229225 | biostudies-literature
Project description:It is important to understand molecular effects on plants exposed to compounds released from use of products containing engineered nanomaterials. Here, we present mRNA sequencing data on transcriptome impacts to Douglas-fir following 2 weeks of sublethal exposure to 30:1 diluted airborne emissions released from combustion of diesel fuel containing engineered CeO2 nanoparticle catalysts (DECe). Our hypothesis was that chamber exposure to DECe would induce distinct transcriptome changes in seedling needles compared with responses to conventional diesel exhaust (DE) or filtered DECe Gas Phase. Significantly increased uptake/binding of Ce in needles of DECe treated seedlings was 2.7X above background levels and was associated with altered gene expression patterns. All 225 Blast2GO gene ontologies (GOs) enriched by up-regulated DECe transcripts were nested within GOs for DE, however, 29 of 31 enriched GOs for down-regulated DECe transcripts were unique. MapMan analysis also identified three pathways enriched with DECe down-regulated transcripts. There was prominent representation of genes with attenuated expression in transferase, transporter, RNA regulation and protein degradation GOs and pathways. CeO2 nanoparticle additive decreased and shifted molecular impact of diesel emissions. Wide-spread use of such products and chronic environmental exposure to DECe may adversely affect plant physiology and development.
| S-EPMC6309902 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Adaptation to cold is one of the greatest challenges to forest trees. This process is highly synchronized with environmental cues relating to photoperiod and temperature. Here, we use a candidate gene-based approach to search for genetic associations between 384 single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers from 117 candidate genes and 21 cold-hardiness related traits. A general linear model approach, including population structure estimates as covariates, was implemented for each marker-trait pair. We discovered 30 highly significant genetic associations [false discovery rate (FDR) Q < 0.10] across 12 candidate genes and 10 of the 21 traits. We also detected a set of 7 markers that had elevated levels of differentiation between sampling sites situated across the Cascade crest in northeastern Washington. Marker effects were small (r(2) < 0.05) and within the range of those published previously for forest trees. The derived SNP allele, as measured by a comparison to a recently diverged sister species, typically affected the phenotype in a way consistent with cold hardiness. The majority of markers were characterized as having largely nonadditive modes of gene action, especially underdominance in the case of cold-tolerance related phenotypes. We place these results in the context of trade-offs between the abilities to grow longer and to avoid fall cold damage, as well as putative epigenetic effects. These associations provide insight into the genetic components of complex traits in coastal Douglas fir, as well as highlight the need for landscape genetic approaches to the detection of adaptive genetic diversity.
| S-EPMC2728866 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Somatic embryogenesis techniques have been developed for most coniferous species, but only using very juvenile material. To extend the techniques' scope, better integrated understanding of the key biological, physiological and molecular characteristics of embryogenic state is required. Therefore, embryonal masses (EMs) and non-embryogenic calli (NECs) have been compared during proliferation at multiple levels. EMs and NECs originating from a single somatic embryo (isogenic lines) of each of three unrelated genotypes were used in the analyses, which included comparison of the lines' anatomy by transmission light microscopy, transcriptomes by RNAseq Illumina sequencing, proteomes by free-gel analysis, contents of endogenous phytohormones (indole-3-acetic acid, cytokinins and ABA) by LC-MS analysis, and soluble sugar contents by HPLC. EMs were characterized by upregulation (relative to levels in NECs) of transcripts, proteins, transcription factors and active cytokinins associated with cell differentiation accompanied by histological, carbohydrate content and genetic markers of cell division. In contrast, NECs were characterized by upregulation (relative to levels in EMs) of transcripts, proteins and products associated with responses to stimuli (ABA, degradation forms of cytokinins, phenols), oxidative stress (reactive oxygen species) and carbohydrate storage (starch). Sub-Network Enrichment Analyses that highlighted functions and interactions of transcripts and proteins that significantly differed between EMs and NECs corroborated these findings. The study shows the utility of a novel approach involving integrated multi-scale transcriptomic, proteomic, biochemical, histological and anatomical analyses to obtain insights into molecular events associated with embryogenesis and more specifically to the embryogenic state of cell in Douglas-fir.
| S-EPMC6403139 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) is a conifer native to North America that has become increasingly popular in plantations in France due to its many advantages as timber: rapid growth, quality wood, and good adaptation to climate change. Tree genetic improvement programs require knowledge of a species' genetic structure and history and the development of genetic markers. The very slow progress in this field, for Douglas fir as well as the entire genus Pinus, can be explained using the very large size of their genomes, as well as by the presence of numerous highly repeated sequences. Proteomics, therefore, provides a powerful way to access genomic information of otherwise challenging species. Here, we present the first Douglas fir proteomes acquired using nLC-MS/MS from 12 different plant organs or tissues. We identified 3975 different proteins and quantified 3462 of them, then examined the distribution of specific proteins across plant organs/tissues and their implications in various molecular processes. As the first large proteomic study of a resinous tree species with organ-specific profiling, this short note provides an important foundation for future genomic annotations of conifers and other trees.
| S-EPMC10526743 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Local adaptation and phenotypic plasticity are important components of plant responses to variations in environmental conditions. While local adaptation has been widely studied in trees, little is known about plasticity of gene expression in adult trees in response to ever-changing environmental conditions in natural habitats. Here we investigate plasticity of gene expression in needle tissue between two douglas-fir provenances represented by 25 adult trees using deep RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq). Using linear mixed models, we investigated the effect of temperature, soil water availability and photoperiod on the abundance of 59189 detected transcripts. Expression of more than 80% of all identified transcripts revealed a response to variations in environmental conditions in the field. GO term overrepresentation analysis revealed gene expression responses to temperature, soil water availability and photoperiod that are highly conserved among many plant taxa. However, expression differences between the two Douglas-fir provenances were rather small compared to the expression differences observed between individual trees. Although the effect of environment on global transcript expression was high, the observed genotype by environment (GxE) interaction of gene expression was surprisingly low, since only 21 of all detected transcripts showed a GxE interaction.
2016-09-20 | GSE73420 | GEO
Project description:Forest trees exhibit remarkable adaptations to their environments. The genetic basis for phenotypic adaptation to climatic gradients has been established through a long history of common garden, provenance, and genecological studies. The identities of genes underlying these traits, however, have remained elusive and thus so have the patterns of adaptive molecular diversity in forest tree genomes. Here, we report an analysis of diversity and divergence for a set of 121 cold-hardiness candidate genes in coastal Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii). Application of several different tests for neutrality, including those that incorporated demographic models, revealed signatures of selection consistent with selective sweeps at three to eight loci, depending upon the severity of a bottleneck event and the method used to detect selection. Given the high levels of recombination, these candidate genes are likely to be closely linked to the target of selection if not the genes themselves. Putative homologs in Arabidopsis act primarily to stabilize the plasma membrane and protect against denaturation of proteins at freezing temperatures. These results indicate that surveys of nucleotide diversity and divergence, when framed within the context of further association mapping experiments, will come full circle with respect to their utility in the dissection of complex phenotypic traits into their genetic components.
| S-EPMC2746152 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Acidification of forest ecosystems leads to increased plant availability of the micronutrient manganese (Mn), which is toxic when taken up in excess. To investigate whether ectomycorrhizas protect against excessive Mn by improving plant growth and nutrition or by retention of excess Mn in the hyphal mantle, seedlings of two populations of Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), two varieties, one being menziesii (DFM) and the other being glauca (DFG), were inoculated with the ectomycorrhizal fungus Rhizopogon subareolatus in sand cultures. Five months after inoculation, half of the inoculated and non-inoculated seedlings were exposed to excess Mn in the nutrient solution for further 5 months. At the end of this period, plant productivity, nutrient concentrations, Mn uptake and subcellular compartmentalisation were evaluated. Non-inoculated, non-stressed DFM plants produced about 2.5 times more biomass than similarly treated DFG. Excess Mn in the nutrient solution led to high accumulation of Mn in needles and roots but only to marginal loss in biomass. Colonisation with R. subareolatus slightly suppressed DFM growth but strongly reduced that of DFG (-50%) despite positive effects of mycorrhizas on plant phosphorus nutrition. Growth reductions of inoculated Douglas fir seedlings were unexpected since the degree of mycorrhization was not high, i.e. ca. 30% in DFM and 8% in DFG. Accumulation of high Mn was not prevented in inoculated seedlings. The hyphal mantle of mycorrhizal root tips accumulated divalent cations such as Ca, but not Mn, thus not providing a barrier against excessive Mn uptake into the plants associated with R. subareolatus.
| S-EPMC2480516 | biostudies-other
Project description:The medium pH level of plant tissue cultures has been shown to be essential to many aspects of explant development and growth. Sensitivity or tolerance of medium pH change in vitro varies according to specific requirements of individual species. The objectives of this study are to 1) determine medium pH change over time in storage conditions and with presence of explants, 2) evaluate the effects of medium pH change on explant growth performance and 3) assess the effects of adding a pH stabilizer, 2-(N-morpholino)ethanesulfonic acid (MES) that is commonly used in Douglas-fir micropropagation medium. Vegetative buds were collected in the spring before breaking dormancy from juvenile and mature donor trees for conducting these evaluations. Medium, with or without MES, was pre-adjusted to five pH levels before adding MES, agar and autoclaving. Medium pH changes and explant growth parameters were measured at eight different incubation times. Overall, MES provided a more stable medium pH, relative to starting pH values, under both light and dark storage conditions as well as with presence of explants. A general trend of decreasing medium pH over time was found comparing explants from juvenile and mature donor genotypes. Explant height and weight growth increased over time, but differ among explants from juvenile and mature donor genotypes. Our findings suggest that a 21-day subculture practice may best sustain medium freshness, medium pH level and desirable explant growth.
| S-EPMC4617322 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BACKGROUND: Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) extends over a wide range of contrasting environmental conditions, reflecting substantial local adaptation. For this reason, it is an interesting model species to study plant adaptation and the effects of global climate change such as increased temperatures and significant periods of drought on individual trees and the forest landscape in general. However, genomic data and tools for studying genetic variation in natural populations to understand the genetic and physiological mechanisms of adaptation are currently missing for Douglas-fir. This study represents a first step towards characterizing the Douglas-fir transcriptome based on 454 sequencing of twelve cDNA libraries. The libraries were constructed from needle and wood tissue of coastal and interior provenances subjected to drought stress experiments. RESULTS: The 454 sequencing of twelve normalized cDNA libraries resulted in 3.6 million reads from which a set of 170,859 putative unique transcripts (PUTs) was assembled. Functional annotation by BLAST searches and Gene Ontology mapping showed that the composition of functional classes is very similar to other plant transcriptomes and demonstrated that a large fraction of the Douglas-fir transcriptome is tagged by the PUTs. Based on evolutionary conservation, we identified about 1,000 candidate genes related to drought stress. A total number of 187,653 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were detected by three SNP detection tools. However, only 27,688 SNPs were identified by all three methods, indicating that SNP detection depends on the particular method used. The two alleles of about 60% of the 27,688 SNPs are segregating simultaneously in both coastal and interior provenances, which indicates a high proportion of ancestral shared polymorphisms or a high level of gene flow between these two ecologically and phenotypically different varieties. CONCLUSIONS: We established a catalogue of PUTs and large SNP database for Douglas-fir. Both will serve as a useful resource for the further characterization of the genome and transcriptome of Douglas-fir and for the analysis of genetic variation using genotyping or resequencing methods.
| S-EPMC3637476 | biostudies-literature