Landscape genomic prediction for restoration of a Eucalyptus foundation species under climate change
- The Australian National University, Australia
- Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia
- Department of Parks and Wildlife Western Australia, Australia
- University of New England, Australia
Abstract
As species face rapid environmental change, we can build resilient populations through restoration projects that incorporate predicted future climates into seed sourcing decisions. Eucalyptus melliodora is a foundation species of a critically endangered community in Australia that is a target for restoration. We examined genomic and phenotypic variation to make empirical based recommendations for seed sourcing. We examined isolation by distance and isolation by environment, determining high levels of gene flow extending for 500 km and correlations with climate and soil variables. Growth experiments revealed extensive phenotypic variation both within and among sampling sites, but no site-specific differentiation in phenotypic plasticity. Model predictions suggest that seed can be sourced broadly across the landscape, providing ample diversity for adaptation to environmental change. Application of our landscape genomic model to E. melliodora restoration projects can identify genomic variation suitable for predicted future climates, thereby increasing the long term probability of successful restoration.
Data availability
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Eucalyptus melliodora Genotyping-By-Sequencing (GBS)Publicly available at NCBI SRA (BioProject Accession: PRJNA413429).
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
Australian Research Council (Linkage Grant LP130100455)
- Jason G Bragg
- Linda M Broadhurst
- Adrienne B Nicotra
- Margaret Byrne
- Justin O Borevitz
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Copyright
© 2018, Supple et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Landscape genomic prediction for restoration of a Eucalyptus foundation species under climate change
eLife 7:e31835.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.31835
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