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Harvard Forest Research Project 2024
- Title: The Adaptation to Climate and Environment experiment at Harvard Forest
- Principal investigator: Jeannine Cavender-Bares (cavender@umn.edu)
- Institution: University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
- Primary contact: Jeannine Cavender-Bares (cavender@umn.edu)
- Team members: Steven Augustine
Meghan Blumstein
Noel Michele Holbrook - Abstract:
The Adaptation to Climate and Environment (ACE) experiment at Harvard Forest is designed to test for local adaptation and adaptive differentiation among genotypes and populations of Quercus rubra (northern red oak) sourced from across the species range. The experiment will be planted as a reciprocal transplant experiment using a quantitative genetics design across three latitudes, including at the Harvard Forest, Hubbard Brook in New Hampshire, and at the Monticello Forest of the University of Virginia. Seeds sources from 100 mother trees from Maine to Georgia were collected in the fall of 2023. Approximately 100 seeds per mother will be planted in a nursery, hopefully the greenhouse space at Harvard Forest in February 2024 by post doc Steven Augustine and Bullard Fellow Meghan Blumstein. Trees will be outplanted to the three common gardens in spring 2025. At the Harvard Forest, the red oak garden will be planted next to the FAB experiment. Trees will be planted in blocks of 100 trees, spaced 1 m apart. Each block will include progeny from all 100 mothers, planted in randomized locations. The experiment will include up to 10 blocks. They will be irrigated in the first three years. The experiment will provide a platform for testing for selection on traits across this keystone species and linking functional and physiological information with genomic data. It will also provide a means to test whether southern populations have higher fitness in more northern sites than where they current occur. The experiment will inform our understanding of shifts in red oak regeneration and performance with climate change.
