Last year, we published a database of traits from European beech provenance trials; the most extensive set of such data to be collected (Robson, Benito-Garzon et al, 2018 Scientific Data), and earlier this year provided a road map of how to use these sort of trait data in Species Distribution Model to predict responses to climate change (Benito-Garzon et al., 2019 New Phytologist). So it’s fitting that Homero Garate, working with Marta Benito-Garzon in Bordeaux in collaboration with us, should give a practical illustration of the application of these models to this data set, presented here in a new paper just out in Global Ecology and Biogeography.
The paper entitled, Range‐wide variation in local adaptation and phenotypic plasticity of fitness‐related traits in Fagus sylvatica and their implications under climate change, quantifies local adaptation and phenotypic plasticity of vertical and radial growth, leaf flushing and survival across the species range to estimate the contribution of each trait towards explaining occurrence.