Forest tree species and the impact of climate change and variability

Introduction 

The Canadian Forest Service's Climate change network long-term mission seeks to determine and assess the sensitivity of Canadian forests to climate change and provide scientific knowledge for formulating strategies for mitigating and/or adapting to changing 

Goals

• Assess the sensitivity, acclimation and adaptation responses of natural and pedigree populations from the impact of climate change for at risk and/or keystone tree species.
• Scale up results by modeling species response to different climate change scenarios.

Red spruce

• Important timber species
• In decline over much of its range
• Low genetic variation compared to other conifers
• Can hybridize with black spruce
• Important component of Acadian old growth forest
• A species at risk from human activities

Black spruce

• Important pulp and paper species
• Pioneer characteristics
• Generally cold tolerant
• Trans-Canadian species
• Red spruce and black spruce hybrids
• Can occur naturally, extent and role unknown
• Little known about adaptive traits of hybrids

The same red spruce and black spruce are growing in various controlled environmental chambers and silvicultural conditions. 

Source material

• Natural populations of both red spruce and black spruce from three provinces (ON, NB, NS) are compared.
• Hybrids: controlled crosses to produce black spruce, red spruce and three intermediate types (0 [Sb], 25, 50, 75, 100 [Sr]).

Aspects 

Four main areas of study have been developed:

• Elevated carbon dioxide research
• Freezing tolerance research
• Drought tolerance research
• Advance productivity and environment specific yield research