Ep. 586: Trees, Genomics, and Climate
Guest: Dr. Sally Aitken (University of British Columbia, AdapTree)
According to a 2015 Nature report, there are more than 3 trillion trees on Earth. “Trees are amazing. They’re the lungs of the Earth and home to millions of organisms, fungi, and animals,” says Sally Aitken at the University of British Columbia’s Forestry Department and lead of the AdapTree project. “Without a doubt: one of the most successful species on Earth.” Aitken also warns, “They are a species under threat due to rapid environmental changes.”
The biggest challenge for trees is the rate of change. “For time immemorial, trees have adapted to a changing environment and they continue to do so,” says Aitken. The objective of the AdapTree project is to address that pace of change by identifying alleles in Douglas-fir, spruce, western larch, jack pine, and lodgepole pine trees that have adapted to a variety of environments.
Using genetic tools, the team at AdapTree works with a variety of stakeholders within forestry to identify strains of species that will survive in regions where environmental conditions are changing. The long term goal is to ensure the health of the trees and forests using sophisticated genome-based intelligence.
We invited Dr. Sally Aitken of the Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences at UBC to join us for a Conversation That Matters about working with our trees to ensure they have long and healthy lives.
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