Frequently asked questions

What are key considerations when adding species to improve landscape functioning?

• For landscape regeneration, seed sources should have a high level of variation to provide resilience against climate variability and biological factors such as pathogens. This study  provides a landscape genomic model for evaluating genomic variation suitable for predicted future climates. > Supple, M.A. et al. (2018). Landscape genomic prediction for restoration of a Eucalyptus foundation species under climate change. eLIFE. 7.
• For species that hold most of their genetic variation within populations, there could be little benefit in planning conservation strategies around environmental adaptation of seed sources. > von Takach Dukai, B. et al. (2019). Pervasive admixture between eucalypt species has consequences for conservation and assisted migration. Evolutionary Applications.
• ​There are many ethical, legal, and scientific issues of "managed relocation" (moving species to improve ecosystem functioning under climate change). This paper offers suggestions for land managers and government agencies. > Schwartz, M.W. et al. (2012). Managed Relocation: Integrating the Scientific, Regulatory, and Ethical Challenges. BioScience. 62 (8).

How can genetic data from plants help to combat climate change?

• New technologies are helping to develop crops for better performance under climate change. This paper describes advancements that can help to inform plant breeding and production programs. > Namin, S.T. et al. (2018). Deep phenotyping: deep learning for temporal phenotype/genotype classification. Plant Methods 14. 
• ​This paper describes how genomics can help land managers plan to increase biodiversity for greater ecosystem resilience and conservation. > Hoffmann, A. et al. (2015). A framework for incorporating evolutionary genomics into biodiversity conservation and management. Climate Change Responses. 2 (1).
• Control/sensing methods can combine with genetic databases to help identify high-performing plants. This paper explores how this can help to guide plant production efforts to predict growing results under climate change. > Brown, T.B. et al. (2014). TraitCapture: genomic and environment modelling of plant phenomic data. Current Opinion in Plant Biology. 18.

What kinds of plants have been involved in landscape genomic studies?

• Many species have been studied under varying climate conditions at the genome-level. This paper lists some species and summarizes key research findings. > Bragg, J.G. et al. (2015). Genomic variation across landscapes: insights and applications. New Phytologist. 207. 

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