Pacific Southwest Research Station

Evaluation of Montane Forest Genetic Resources in the Lake Tahoe Basin

Full title: Evaluation of montane forest genetic resources in the Lake Tahoe basin: Implications for conservation, management, and adaptive responses of Pinus monticola to environmental change

Lead Researchers: Detlev Vogler, USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station; David Neale, Department of Plant Sciences, University of California at Davis; Patricia Maloney, Department of Plant Pathology, University of California at Davis

Abstract

Forest trees species are primary terrestrial ecosystem components and conservation of their genetic resources warrants special attention. Evaluation of adaptive genetic diversity of forest resources in the Lake Tahoe basin will allow us to detect the sensitivity and potential vulnerability of populations of Pinus monticola (western white pine) to environmental change (introduced organisms, climatic warming, and climate-driven outbreaks of native insects). Identifying patterns of adaptive variation at the landscape-level will constitute a valuable tool to design conservation, management, and forest health monitoring strategies for forest tree species. We are taking an ecological and genetic approach to better understand the interaction of landscape characteristics (geology, climatic gradients, soil properties) and evolutionary processes (gene flow, selection) on ecologically important plant traits (water-use efficiency, disease resistance, phenology, and growth) of western white pine across the LTBMU, to determine the adaptive potential of this forest tree.