Intraspecific variation of Scost pine under experimental increased of temperature

Póster presentado en the XIV MEDECOS & XIII AEET meeting, Seville, Spain, 31st January - 4th February 2017Natural tree populations consist on individuals that exhibit intra- and inter-specific variation at different geographic scales, as a result of the balance between gene flow and selection. The extent and magnitude of such variation will influence the adaptive capacity of trees under forthcoming changing environmental conditions. Scots pine in Scotland is the iconic species of the remnant Caledonian forest and appear in a relatively narrow geographic area with a steep East-West environmental gradient, increasing in rainfall and temperature. We hypothesised that western populations could be better adapted to warmer conditions and, as a consequence, could perform differently to predicted increased temperature. We performed an experiment under strictly-controlled conditions with a nested hierarchical design including region (East vs. West), population and families. We used two temperature scenarios, current temperature and increased temperature, and analysed germination and growth of above and below-ground traits. The largest amount of variation occurred at the family level. Nevertheless, regional and population differences were detected, where eastern populations invested more in roots and western populations had a greater number of stomata rows and thicker roots. In addition, increased temperature had strong effects on early growth similar in the two regions, with advanced germination, enhanced growth and biomass about 10 times, but it was not accompanied by shifts in biomass partitioning. Despite the intra-specific variation found in Scots pine populations, our results reveal consistent effects of increased temperature on growth and germination.N