Work package 3

Leader: Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)

The goal of this work package is to decipher the role of genetic and environmental processes underlying key ecophysiological traits involved in the construction of adaptive phenotypes. The Spanish team will quantify phenotypic diversity in connection with environmental heterogeneity and geographical variation at the individual, population and species levels; and the relative importance of plastic versus genetic responses to environmental changes by framing the data collection in natural, albeit complex and multifactorial, conditions. Experimentation will be combined with observation to distinguish genetic from environmental effects in phenotypic responses. The specific objectives of this work package are:

• Quantify phenotypic features involved in the responses to changing environmental conditions
• Understand patterns of local adaptation from extensive quantification of the phenotype
• Quantify the evolutionary potential of key traits and their phenotypic plasticity
• Assess the relative vulnerability of different tree populations and species to global change.