Can the lifecycle of oak be adapted to coming climate change? (CENTA 2025-B25)

Oak (Quercus robur) is an ecological keystone tree species within the UK, with each tree a habitat for up to 200 other species (Mitchell et al., 2019). However, plant reproduction is highly environmentally-sensitive, with some tree species already responding to climate change by altering the time at which they flower (Büntgen et al., 2022), risking the potential loss of entire species if plant-pollinator interactions are disrupted or trees cannot otherwise successfully reproduce. Oak is remarkably long-lived and slow-growing compared to its close relatives, taking 25-40 years to begin flowering. Today’s generation of oaks will thus bear the brunt of environmental changes without time to naturally adapt to the challenges this will present. The potential risk of climate change to oak must therefore be taken seriously, but large-scale experiments such as the Free Air Carbon Enrichment (FACE) study being conducted by the Birmingham Institute for Forest Research (BIFoR) allow us to simulate future atmospheric conditions and predict the challenges to oak reproduction in the future. We do not understand why oak reproduces so slowly. Plant ageing has been studied only in fast-growing annual plants such as the laboratory model Arabidopsis thaliana (Wu et al., 2009). Genes with the potential to control ageing and flowering in oaks have been identified from preliminary gene expression data (Figure 1), but their functions remain untested.

This project will improve our understanding of oak ageing and reproduction in the following ways:

1. Determine how future atmospheric CO2 concentrations will affect ageing mechanisms in oak saplings and reproductive success in mature oaks, utilizing BIFoR FACE.

2. Test if oak ageing and flowering mechanisms are similar to those from Arabidopsis using wet-lab experiments, and whether ‘speed-breeding’ by altering growth conditions (Watson et al., 2018) can potentially be implemented in oak.

3. Utilising the Oak 2000 genomes dataset of RGB Kew, map the natural variation of candidate ageing genes within the oak population to quantify oak’s capacity for adaptation through breeding programmes.

Project Highlights:

In collaboration with BIFoR this project will test the effect of future atmospheric CO2 on oak reproduction and to what extent oak will become better or less-well adapted to that environment. This project will identify genes that might control oak puberty and reproduction as a route to speed-breeding, and whether the lifecycle of oak can be accelerated by manipulating environmental conditions In collaboration with RGB Kew this project will map the natural sequence diversity of these genes within oaks and assess the future importance of these variants for oak breeding programs.

For further information on this project and details of how to apply to it please visit https://centa.ac.uk/studentship/2025-b25-can-the-lifecycle-of-oak-be-adapted-to-coming-climate-change/ Further information on how to apply for a CENTA studentship can be found on the CENTA website: https://centa.ac.uk/

Funding notes:

The CENTA DTP is currently awaiting confirmation of funding under the BBSRC-NERC Doctoral Landscape Award (DLA) scheme, which is the new name for Doctoral Training Partnerships (DTPs). This funding will support cohorts starting from 2025 onwards. We anticipate receiving further information by late October or early November 2024. Funding for this PhD opportunity is therefore subject to this confirmation. For further information please visit https://centa.ac.uk/. UKRI allows international students to be eligible for studentships but only for a maximum of 30% of the cohort. Please be aware that CENTA funding does not cover any additional costs relating to moving to and residing in the UK. All international applicants must ensure they can fulfil the University of Birmingham’s international student entry requirements, which includes English language requirements. For further information please visit https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/postgraduate/pgt/requirements-pgt/international/index.aspx.