Promoting resilience of UK tree species to novel pests and pathogens: ecological and evolutionary solutions

提高英国树种对新型害虫和病原体的抵抗力：生态和进化解决方案

• 批准号: BB/L012243/1
• 负责人: Stephen Cavers
• 金额: $ 34.34万
• 依托单位: NERC CEH (Up to 30.11.2019)
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2014 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FL012243%2F1
• 关键词: Promoting; resilience; UK; tree; species; Promoting; resilience; UK; tree; species

It has been made clear by examples such as Ash Dieback, that our trees face a serious threat from new diseases and pests. As trees are everywhere and are well-loved parts of our landscape, an important part of our economy and an essential part of our biodiversity, their loss has serious consequences. However, dealing with each new threat as it comes along is difficult, expensive and potentially futile as threats can evolve so much faster than their tree hosts. Also, tree health is not just about a single pest or disease, but about growing trees in the right place, about keeping population sizes up, about ensuring seedlings get a chance to grow and about allowing forests to change as the environment changes. So, in order to find a sustainable long-term strategy for keeping our trees healthy, we need to consider the range of real and potential threats that trees face and try to deal with these together. At the same time, we need to ask what is possible for changing the way we grow trees: how do we use trees now, what do we want from our trees in the future, and how much change are we willing to accept? By finding a middle ground, that brings together the best biological knowledge with a clear understanding of the possible ways to adapt, we can give our trees the best possible chance of withstanding new threats.The most important part of finding a way to do this is bringing together many different groups of people, and different types of knowledge. A lot is known about many of our trees already, but usually this knowledge comes from unlinked, independent studies and rarely do results from one study tell us something about another, even for the same tree species. Much better coordination is needed. To show how this can be done, we aim to use the example of Scots pine, an important native tree species. For Scots pine, we know of several serious threats that are either here or are likely to reach the UK soon. The remaining native Scots pine forests are small and fragmented, but we know that they are adapted to their local environments: so pine trees from one part of the country grow differently than those from another. There are large plantations of Scots pine in many parts of the UK - there is ten times as much planted as remains in the native forests - and these are often at much higher densities than are found in nature, and often alongside plantations of pines from other parts of the world. There is also a strong cultural attachment to the species; in many places pinewoods are being replanted and it is often used as a garden or amenity tree. Our project aims to measure how variable and adaptable are the threats to Scots pine, to test how much variation there is in the tree species in resistance to these threats, and to find ways to get people involved in making healthier pine forests. By doing this we also aim to show how the same thing can be done for any other tree species, and to put in place the tools for getting it done. We will focus on three important threats to Scots pine - Dothistroma needle blight, the pinetree Lappet moth and pine pitch canker. We will bring together a group of scientists - specialists in ecology, tree genetics, forest pathology, plant biochemistry, fungal ecology and evolution and social science - who will work together on the same, carefully chosen pine trees. This work will tell us how much the UK Scots pine population varies and how much it can change from generation to generation; how populations of the threats grow and change; and what can be done to make the pine forests we have more resilient. We will bring in lessons from crop agriculture, where similar problems have been faced for generations, and adapt these for trees and forests, that have much longer lifespans. Finally, by talking to people who work with and use trees, and the general public, we will find ways to use this information to make things change on the ground.

诸如Ash Dieback之类的例子已经清楚地表明，我们的树木面临新疾病和害虫的严重威胁。由于树木无处不在，并且是我们景观的良好部分，这是我们经济的重要组成部分，也是我们生物多样性的重要组成部分，它们的损失会带来严重的后果。但是，处理每个新的威胁时，它的出现都是困难，昂贵且可能徒劳的，因为威胁的发展速度比树木宿主快得多。另外，树木健康不仅是一种害虫或疾病，而且是关于在正确的位置种植树木，保持人口大小，确保幼苗有生长的机会以及允许森林随着环境变化而变化的有关树木的生长。因此，为了找到一种可持续的长期策略来保持树木健康，我们需要考虑树木面临的真实和潜在威胁范​​围，并试图一起处理这些威胁。同时，我们需要询问改变种植树木的方式有什么可能：我们现在如何使用树木，将来我们想要什么，我们愿意接受多少变化？通过找到一个中间立场，将最佳生物学知识汇集在一起​​，并清楚地了解适应的可能方法，我们可以为树木带来承受新威胁的最佳机会。找到一种方法的最重要部分是将许多不同的人组合在一起，以及不同类型的知识。已经知道我们的许多树木已经知道很多，但是通常这些知识来自未连接的独立研究，很少有一项研究的结果告诉我们有关另一种研究的信息，即使对于同一树种也是如此。需要更好的协调。为了展示如何做到这一点，我们的目标是以一种重要的本地树种苏格兰松树的例子。对于苏格兰派恩来说，我们知道这里有几种严重的威胁，或者很可能很快就会到达英国。其余的本地苏格兰松树林很小且分散，但我们知道它们适应了当地的环境：因此，该国一部分地区的松树与另一部分的生长不同。在英国许多地方，有大量的苏格兰松树种植园 - 种植的十倍是本地森林中的十倍 - 这些种植的密度通常比自然界中的高度要高得多，并且通常与来自世界其他地区的松树种植园一起。物种也有很强的文化依恋。在许多地方，Pinewoods被重新种植，通常被用作花园或便利树。我们的项目旨在衡量苏格兰松树的可变和适应性是对苏格兰松树的威胁，以测试树种对这些威胁的抵抗力的变化，并找到使人们参与使更健康的松树林的人们的方法。通过这样做，我们还旨在展示如何为任何其他树种做同一件事，并为完成它的工具提供。我们将专注于对苏格兰松树的三个重要威胁 - dothistroma neader Blight，Pinetree Lappet Moth和Pine Pitch Canker。我们将汇集一群科学家 - 生态学，树遗传学，森林病理学，植物生物化学，真菌生态学和进化论与社会科学的专家 - 他们将在相同的，精心选择的松树上共同努力。这项工作将告诉我们英国苏格兰松树种群的变化是多少，以及一代人可以改变多少；威胁的种群如何增长和变化；可以做些什么使我们拥有更具弹性的松树林。我们将从作物农业中吸入课程，这些农业几代人都面临着类似的问题，并将其适应寿命更长的树木和森林。最后，通过与与树木和公众合作和使用树木合作的人交谈，我们将找到使用这些信息使事情在实地发生变化的方法。