The culmination of more than 10 years of data collection and analysis, a database of beech traits from over half a million trees planted in a common-garden experiment covering the whole of Europe is out today in Scientific Data.
This resource should help researchers better assess the impacts of climate change on species ranges. The most comprehensive dataset of its kind, it promotes beech as a model species on which to test ideas about the relative importance of intra-specific plasticity and genetic variability in helping populations cope with a changing climate.
You can find the paper here: Robson T.M., Benito Garzon M., BeechCoste52 database consortium (2018) Phenotypic trait variation measured on European genetic trials of Fagus sylvatica L. SCIENTIFIC DATA | 5:180149 | DOI: 10.1038/sdata.2018.149
Here is a press release from INRA in France, and other press releases from the resilience blog of the European Forestry Institute and its sister institute EFIMED.