In situ Comparison of Tree-Ring Responses to Climate and Population Genetics: The Need to Control for Local Climate and Site Variables

Johann M. Housset 1, 2, 3, 4 Christopher Carcaillet 3, 1 Martin P. Girardin 5, 2 Xu Huaitong 2, 4 Francine Tremblay 2, 4 Yves Bergeron 4, 2
1 EPHE - École pratique des hautes études
2 CEF - Centre d'étude de la forêt
3 LEHNA - Laboratoire d'Ecologie des Hydrosystèmes Naturels et Anthropisés
4 NSERCC - Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
5 NRCan - Natural Resources Canada
Abstract : Tree species responses to climate change will be greatly influenced by their evolutionary potential and their phenotypic plasticity. Investigating tree-rings responses to climate and population genetics at the regional scale is crucial in assessing the tree behavior to climate change. This study combined in situ dendroclimatology and population genetics over a latitudinal gradient and compared the variations between the two at the intra- and inter-population levels. This approach was applied on the northern marginal populations of Thuja occidentalis (eastern white-cedar) in the Canadian boreal forest. We aimed first to assess the radial growth variability (response functional trait) within populations across the gradient and to compare it with the genetic diversity (microsatellites). Second, we investigated the variability in the growth response to climate at the regional scale through the radial growth-climate relationships, and tested its correlation with environmental variables and population genetic structure. Model selection based on the Akaike Information Criteria revealed that the growth synchronicity between pairs of trees of a population covariates with both the genetic diversity of this population and the amount of precipitation (inverse correlations), although these variables only explained a small fraction of the observed variance. At the regional scale, variance partitioning and partial redundancy analysis indicate that the growth response to climate was greatly modulated by stand environmental variables, suggesting predominant plastic variations in growth-response to climate. Combining in situ dendroclimatology and population genetics is a promising way to investigate species’ response capacity to climate change in natural stands. We stress the need to control for local climate and site conditions effects on dendroclimatic response to climate to avoid misleading conclusions regarding the associations with genetic variables.
Keywords : climate change dendrochronology population genetics marginal populations radial growth
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Journal articles
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Submitted on : Tuesday, November 8, 2016 - 9:57:42 AM
Last modification on : Wednesday, November 20, 2019 - 2:33:58 AM

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Johann M. Housset, Christopher Carcaillet, Martin P. Girardin, Xu Huaitong, Francine Tremblay, et al.. In situ Comparison of Tree-Ring Responses to Climate and Population Genetics: The Need to Control for Local Climate and Site Variables. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, Frontiers Media S.A, 2016, 4 (123), pp.1-12. ⟨10.3389/fevo.2016.00123⟩. ⟨hal-01393726⟩

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