Virginia Tech launches study of climate change impact on forest adaptation

In Virginia, Jason Holliday, assistant professor of forest genetics and biotechnology in Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment, is using a $1.5 million Faculty Early Career Development Program grant from the National Science Foundation to gain insight into how tree populations adapt at the genomic scale as a result of climate change.

The genomic analysis will be used to inform our understanding of climatic adaptation in two related species that are also widespread in the United States — trembling aspen and eastern cottonwood. Together with black cottonwood, these three species and their hybrids are expected to be important feedstocks for the production of ethanol from woody biomass, owing to their rapid growth on marginal lands unsuitable for agriculture. The research will provide a link to practical breeding applications to optimize the productivity of poplar planting stock in a changing climate.  Holliday will be collaborating with colleagues from the University of Florida and the University of Alberta.

More on the story.