Abstract
Drought is increasingly impairing the vitality of European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) in several regions of its distribution range. In times of climate change, adaptive traits such as plant phenology and frost tolerance are also becoming more important. Adaptive patterns of European beech seem to be complex, as contrasting results regarding the relative effect of phenotypic plasticity and genetic variation in trait variation have been reported. Here, we used a large translocation experiment comprising more than 15,500 seedlings in three regions of Germany to investigate local adaptation and phenotypic plasticity in beech. We found low population differentiation regarding plant survival, and plant height increment, but high phenotypic plasticity for these traits. Survival showed a positive correlation with temperature variables and a less pronounced and negative correlation with precipitation-related variables. This suggests a predominant effect of temperature and growing degree days on the survival of beech seedlings under moderate drought stress. The high phenotypic plasticity may help beech to cope with changing environmental conditions, albeit increasing drought stress may make adaptive changes necessary in the long term.
Highlights
The earth’s surface temperature has increased since the industrial revolution and a further temperature increase is predicted [1]
PC1 was significantly correlated with several climatic variables, whereby the highest positive correlations were found for temperature-related variables such as air temperature 2 m above ground, vapor pressure, and growing degree days, and moderately negative correlations with precipitation-related climatic variables were found (Table S1)
This may be partly due to high phenotypic plasticity, potentially leading to lower selective pressure for beech compared to other tree species, and lower population differentiation in adaptive traits
Summary
The earth’s surface temperature has increased since the industrial revolution and a further temperature increase is predicted [1]. Changing climatic conditions have different effects on forests and can affect the duration of the vegetation period, productivity and vitality of trees [2,3]. For the prediction of species ranges under rapidly changing climatic conditions, knowledge of tolerance and adaptive capacity of populations is needed [4]. European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) is one of the most important deciduous forest tree species in Central Europe. Drought stress seems to be an important factor negatively affecting European beech. Gennaretti et al [7] recently showed that drought has a larger impact on beech productivity compared to heat stress. Beech is considered to be more drought sensitive than other tree species such as Acer pseudoplatanus L., A. platanoides
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