Université du Québec en Outaouais
Ph.D. candidate
Supervisor: Yann Surget-Groba
Start: 2018-09-04
End: 2021-09-05

Project

Adaptive potential of sugar maple facing climate change
Current climate disorder is a threat to global biodiversity and related ecosystem services. When climatic conditions change abruptly, as currently observed, living organisms can either adapt to their new living conditions or migrate to a more favorable habitat. This PhD project aims to study climate-related genomic adaptations in sugar maple, a species widely distributed in eastern North America. Since the demographic history of a species may leave genetic signals that make it difficult to detect adaptive genetic variations, we will first carry out a phylogeographic study of sugar maple from sequence capture data. Then, we will use a landscape genomics approach to study the local adaptation of sugar maple populations in Quebec. Finally, the future distribution of allelic variation will be projected under different climatic scenarios. This project will be the first large-scale study to discuss genetic adaptations in response to changing climate conditions in sugar maple. In addition, understanding the adaptability of sugar maple to climate change may be useful for decisions related to the conservation of this economically important species. This would maximize the adaptive potential and resilience of maple forests to climate change.

Keywords

Phylogeography, landscape genomics, climate change, Sugar Maple