ExpectedOutcome:
In line with the EU biodiversity and climate change objectives, successful proposals will support the protection and sustainable use of forest genetic resources by contributing to a better insight into the characteristics of genetic resources in the climate change context, adaptive and biodiversity supporting practices in forestry and the enhancement of Europe’s ambition in the international biodiversity agenda and international conventions.
Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:
- Improved cooperation and knowledge sharing on deploying and conserving forest genetic resources in Europe;
- Better conservation of unique tree lineages for forest ecosystem restoration and management;
- Sustainable use of genetic resources within the forest community in a climate change context;
- Efficient implementation of the Access and Benefit Sharing Regulation in the EU.
Scope:
Diversity of forest genetic resources provides the adaptive potential for tree species and populations to cope with climatic changes and future challenges. The adaptive potential of forests depends on their demographic history and the forces of natural selection. It also depends on forestry activities and the choice of species and populations that show better potential for adaptation to climate change or to subsequent effects of climate change. Provenance trials and common garden trials allow for the assessment of phenotypic responses in various environmental conditions and genomic backgrounds and therefore, genotype X environment interactions. New provenance trials in new environments including populations from range and habitat margins, coupled with genomic analysis of the provenances should provide insights to improve adaptive forest management.
Proposals should:
- Conduct research and networking on provenance trials or common gardens, with new trials and reassessment of older provenance tests using phenotypic traits related to climate change adaptation. This analysis should guide adaptive forest management to choose appropriate forest reproductive material, including its use through assisted migration. This may also lead to a requirement for research into adaptive silvicultural management of stands to support the efficient and sustainable deployment of forest genetic resources.
- Evaluate the impact of forestry activities on forest genetic diversity, develop new cultural trajectories to protect and sustainably use forest genetic resources in naturally regenerated forests, and quantify the ecosystem services provided by forest genetic resources.
- Focus on methods and strategies to breed forest reproductive material with a higher genetic diversity, to diversify tree species composition when establishing new forests and regenerating existing forests. Biomass properties, essential for wood-based products as well as properties related to resilience to climate change induced disturbances, need to be safeguarded or enhanced in the new reproductive material.
- Develop methods and tools to expand the production capacity of nurseries and the diversity of forest reproductive material produced to anticipate and mitigate the impact of extreme weather events, stimulate the development of nurseries in regions where forest reproductive material with useful characteristics is available, establish an EU network of forest nurseries assisting each other with the provision of forest reproductive material, and ensure the traceability of the material from the nursery to the final planting site.
- Expand the EU Forest Reproductive Material Information System (FOREMATIS) and link it with existing information systems to provide information on genetic conservation units with useful properties, to serve as a decision-support tool on where to best source and/or plant forest reproductive material. This would take into account current/future climatic conditions, and create an archive for future generations that should allow the tracking of exact planting site and performance of forest reproductive material.
- Cover different climate/biogeographical regions in Europe.
In this topic the integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content is not a mandatory requirement.
Cross-cutting Priorities:
Artificial IntelligenceDigital Agenda
