Maladaptation to climate change in alpine forests – MALADALP

This research will evaluate the vulnerability of keystone species structuring high-altitude forests to climate change. Mountains of Europe harbor a large diversity of environments that fuels both species diversification and intraspecific adaptation to local conditions. While alpine ecosystems host a third of the world's biodiversity and are among the last preserved natural areas in Europe, they are also predicted to be severely impacted by ongoing climate change. The goals of the project are (1) to better understand the relative contribution of local adaptation and phenotypic plasticity in alpine trees response to the extreme heterogeneity of high-altitude environments, (2) to uncover the unknown genetic basis of climate adaptations in alpine forests and (3) to harness this information to predict how this adaptive equilibrium might be disrupted by ongoing climate change. European larch, mountain pine and Swiss stone pine will be used as focal species because of their documented climate sensitivity and ecological dominance in high altitude forests. This project will make the most of experimental biology and recent advances in genomics and computational biology to help understand and preserve mountain ecosystems. Ultimately, the goal is also to develop a close collaboration with field managers to discuss how to put into practice different conservation strategies that have lacked development and testing so far.