Survivor Oaks

The project "Adaptation potential in oaks to biotic and abiotic stresses under climate change" (Survivor-oaks) is funded in the frame of "Waldklimafonds" by the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (Förderzeichen 2220WK09B4; 2021-2025).

For the last decades, forest ecosystems have been exposed to increasing abiotic and biotic stresses associated with global warming. Long-living plant species (i.e., trees) are particularly vulnerable to rapid climate changes. This joint project between the Thünen Institute of Forest Genetics (TI) and Helmholtz Zentrum München (HMGU) aims to develop silvicultural recommendations for cultivating new climate-adjusted forests and provide plant material suitable for breeding. This project, in particular focuses on Quercus robur, commonly known as common oak, pedunculate oak, European oak or English oak,  which shows a relatively high adaptive potential and, therefore, provides a beacon of hope for European forests under changing climate conditions.

Our ultimate goal is to collect high-fitness Q. robur genotypes characterized by drought tolerance and/ or increased resistance to herbivores and fungal parasites and organize a future-climate oak seed plantation in Germany. For this purpose, we develop genetic markers for the Q. robur tolerance to abiotic and biotic stresses relevant to climate change, such as drought, insect attacks, and fungal infections using integrated analyses of genotypic, phenotypic, and environmental data. To establish drought tolerance markers at HMGU, genomic data will be generated for a Germany-wide collection of Q. robur genotypes and analyzed in a combination with the climate data available from Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD) stations using genome-environment association methods. In addition, already existing pool of genotypes from different climate zones in Germany growing in a Common Garden at TI will be experimentally tested for tolerance to drought (HMGU), herbivore-generalist Lymantria dispar (TI), and powdery mildew agent Erysiphe alphitoides (fungal disease). New Generation Sequencing (NGS) data will be generated for the experimentally detected extreme phenotypes and used for the marker development. A resulting set of genetic markers will be employed for selecting advantageous Q. robur genotypes for the future-climate seed orchard.