Laura Junker taking samples from a tree seedling

Elevated temperature differently affects foliar nitrogen partitioning in seedlings of diverse Douglas fir provenances

Does Doug like it hot or does Doug like it cold? Ph.D. student Laura Junker (Ensminger Lab) and her collaborators recently asked this question of Douglas Fir trees in her paper “Elevated temperature differently affects foliar nitrogen partitioning in seedlings of diverse Douglas fir provenances” published in Tree Physiology. They compared the effect of elevated air temperature on two interior Douglas-fir provenances and observed that heat stress caused greater nitrogen deficiency in the provenance originating from a mesic environment than the provenance from a drier habitat. Heat stress decreased the content of most amino acids of the glutamate family (i.e., arginine, proline, ornithine and glutamine), with current-year needles being more sensitive to elevated temperatures than previous-year needles. Their results show that provenances are likely to be differently affected by future warmer climate and forest managers and the forestry industry can use this information to identify genotypes and provenances best adapted to future climates. Congrats, Laura and colleagues!

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