Promoting resilience of UK tree species to novel pests and pathogens: ecological and evolutionary solutions
Lead Research Organisation:
Forest Research
Department Name: Centre for Ecosystems Soc and Biosecur
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Technical Summary
The project will take advantage of existing experimental resources that the consortium has been building for the past few years. These include living experiments (a reciprocal transplant experiment on 3 contrasting sites including 21 native provenances; a glasshouse provenance-progeny trial; field provenance-progeny and provenance trials) and genetic and genomic resources (a large database of mutations across the Scots pine genome and capability for high-throughput genotyping; reference genome for Dothistroma; genetic markers for Dothistroma and pine tree Lappet moth). These existing resources will be made available to the project at no cost.
We will assess distribution and variation in the threat organisms using surveys and genotyping, and study pathogen evolution by characterising genetic changes in samples from different populations. We will assess variation in the host using population genomics (high-density genotyping of samples from multiple populations in trials) and quantitative genetics (analysis of variation in phenotypic traits and extended phenotype - resistance, phenology, morphology, needle chemistry, needle endophyte community). Data from the biological studies will be unified in a spatially-structured database and used, with data on distribution, density and regeneration rates to model the introduction and spread of threat organisms and their interaction with a variable pine population. The models will be used to test scenarios for management change that emerge from stakeholder interactions.
We will use workshops, semi-structured interviews and focus groups with stakeholders (identified through stakeholder analysis) to identify, test and refine options for building resilient pine populations. This will be a dynamic process, with ongoing interaction between natural and social scientists in the consortium, and with stakeholders. Finally, we will create a template for extending the analysis to other tree species.
We will assess distribution and variation in the threat organisms using surveys and genotyping, and study pathogen evolution by characterising genetic changes in samples from different populations. We will assess variation in the host using population genomics (high-density genotyping of samples from multiple populations in trials) and quantitative genetics (analysis of variation in phenotypic traits and extended phenotype - resistance, phenology, morphology, needle chemistry, needle endophyte community). Data from the biological studies will be unified in a spatially-structured database and used, with data on distribution, density and regeneration rates to model the introduction and spread of threat organisms and their interaction with a variable pine population. The models will be used to test scenarios for management change that emerge from stakeholder interactions.
We will use workshops, semi-structured interviews and focus groups with stakeholders (identified through stakeholder analysis) to identify, test and refine options for building resilient pine populations. This will be a dynamic process, with ongoing interaction between natural and social scientists in the consortium, and with stakeholders. Finally, we will create a template for extending the analysis to other tree species.
Planned Impact
As described in full proposal document
Publications
Perry A
(2016)
Has Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) co-evolved with Dothistroma septosporum in Scotland? Evidence for spatial heterogeneity in the susceptibility of native provenances.
in Evolutionary applications
Mullett M
(2017)
Insights into the pathways of spread and potential origins of Dothistroma septosporum in Britain
in Fungal Ecology
Young J
(2018)
Working with decision-makers for resilient forests: A case study from the UK
in Forest Ecology and Management
| Title | Computer game |
| Description | Forest Research has fed in to the development of a computer game to illustrate principles of geneflow, disease spread and forest management. We have tested and commented on the prototype game |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Impact | This output will be tested with children at the Edinburgh Science Festival in March 2016 to see if it inspires them to understand the complexities of modern forest management and the issues that it has to deal with. |
| URL | http://hyperluminalgames.com/ |
| Title | PROTREE project video |
| Description | A professional video of 6 minutes for a broad audience to highlight the impacts of invasive pests and diseases on native Scots pine but also the wider significance of resilience building in our forests (using genetic resources) |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2015 |
| Impact | Greater understanding of tree health issues; promotion of the PROTREE project; ensuring that stakeholder views on tree health and the importance of resilience are heard in addition to science (thereby reaching a much wider practitioner audience). Can be found on the PROTREE website: https://wiki.ceh.ac.uk/display/THI/The+Project |
| Description | Perry, A., Cavers, S., Brown, A. V., Cottrell, J. E., Ennos, R. A. (2014) Heritable genetic variation in response to Dothistroma needle blight in native Scots pine. Poster: presented at the Tree Health and Plant Biosecurity Initiative meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Perry, A., Cavers, S., Brown, A. V., Cottrell, J. E., Ennos, R. A. (2014) Heritable genetic variation in response to Dothistroma needle blight in native Scots pine. Poster: presented at the Tree Health and Plant Biosecurity Initiative meeting |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | CALEDON computer game -developed in collaboration with CEH and RBGE as a publicly available educational tool for teaching schoolchildren the complexities of forest management |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | The CALEDON computer game has been developed to introduce schoolchildren to the complexities of forest management. It has been demonstrated at a number of events and has had positive reports from uptake in postgraduate teaching courses abroad. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Invited evening lecture delivered to the Botanical Society of Scotland on Scots pine. This talk included some of the work of PROTREE. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The Botanical Society of Scotland holds a series of invited lectures for its members. The audience consists of member of the society as well as interested public. The lecture was on Scots pine in general but also reported some of the findings of PROTREE. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Invited lecture on Scots pine to edinburgh University MSC students at the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh. The talk included some of the results from PROTREE. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | The Edinburgh University MSc students receive a few lectures as part of their course from applied researchers and one of this year's lecture included some of the PROTREE results. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | PROTREE stakeholder meeting at CEH |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This workshop tried to engage stakeholders in the work being done within PROTREE and its practical significance to policy makers and forest practitioners |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| URL | https://wiki.ceh.ac.uk/display/THI/2015/06/01/First+Stakeholder+Workshop |
| Description | Participation in metabarcoding meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Meeting to discuss methodology and data analysis for metabarcoding research in LWEC projects and other projects |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Patrick Sherwood, Edward Wilson, Roger Moore, Glenn Iason. Identifying resistance traits in Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) to the pine tree lappet moth (Dendrolimus pini). Oral presentation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Conference presentation. Future event "Identifying resistance traits in Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) to the pine tree lappet moth (Dendrolimus pini) IUFRO conference September 18-22 Freiburg, Germany |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Perry, A., Cavers, S., Brown, A. V., Cottrell, J. E., Ennos, R. A. (2014) Is there variation in resistance to Dothistroma needle blight in native Scottish Scots pine?. Talk: presented at the COST Action FP1102 DIAROD Plenary meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Perry, A., Cavers, S., Brown, A. V., Cottrell, J. E., Ennos, R. A. (2014) Is there variation in resistance to Dothistroma needle blight in native Scottish Scots pine?. Talk: presented at the COST Action FP1102 DIAROD Plenary meeting |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | Perry, A., Cavers, S., Brown, A. V., Cottrell, J. E., Ennos, R. A. (2015) Can native Scots pine survive Dothistroma needle blight?. Talk: presented at the Genetics of Tree-Parasite Interactions conference, Orleans, France. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Perry, A., Cavers, S., Brown, A. V., Cottrell, J. E., Ennos, R. A. (2015) Can native Scots pine survive Dothistroma needle blight?. Talk: presented at the Genetics of Tree-Parasite Interactions conference, Orleans, France. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | Perry, A., Cavers, S., Brown, A. V., Cottrell, J. E., Ennos, R. A. (2015) Variation in disease resistance in native Scots pine. Talk: presented at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology\'s annual student symposium |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Perry, A., Cavers, S., Brown, A. V., Cottrell, J. E., Ennos, R. A. (2015) Variation in disease resistance in native Scots pine. Talk: presented at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology\'s annual student symposium |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | Public engagement on 21stMay 2016 at Big Nature Festival, Musselburgh near Edinburgh including demonstration of CALEDON computer game and material on recent forest tree pests and diseases |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | PROTREE had a stand at the Big Nature Festival in Musselburgh on 21-22nd May 2016 to engage with public and school children on the work of PROTREE. This included hands on experience of the CALEDON computer game and information on forest pests and diseases. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Second PROTREE Stakeholders workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The second PROTREE workshop aimed to update practitioners and ploicy makers on the work of the project and its practical implications |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | https://wiki.ceh.ac.uk/display/THI/2016/01/18/Second+Stakeholder+Workshop |
| Description | Social research meetings |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A series of meetings with social researchers from different institutes to discuss our common research interest in resilience. The key outcome here was to facilitate collaboration and to avoid stakeholder fatigue by developing a coordiated approach. Discussions and networking is ongoing. Common questions and sets of stakeholders have been agreed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | THAPBI grantholders meeting in York October 2015 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presentation made by Glenn Iason on progress in PROTREE project on Pine Tree Lappet Moth covering joint work with Forest Research and James Hutton Institute |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | Talk to COST Action FP1102 DIAROD Plenary meeting - September 2014 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Talk to COST Action FP1102 DIAROD Plenary meeting - September 2014 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | • Glenn Iason, Patrick Sherwood (JHI), Roger Moore, Ed Wilson (Forest Research) (2016). Genetic and environmental components of pine resistance to the pine-tree lappet moth. Oral presentation to PROTREE Annual Meeting, CEH, Bush Estate, Penicuik, 04 April 2016. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Talk given to update stakeholders and grantholders of progress on entomological element of Protree with particular emphasis on caterpillar growth and pine needle dietary composition. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |