Aspen forests maintain the genetic diversity needed to adjust to changing environments.

Watching paint dry has nothing on watching a forest grow. That achingly long wait has always made it challenging to study how forests adapt to environmental fluctuations. As a result, it’s hard to predict how forests will fare, for example, in a changing climate or under pressure from new pests.

That’s why a group of CALS researchers, including F&WE Professor and Chair Eric Kruger, F&WE Assistant Professor Amy Trowbridge, and multiple others, took the long view. Their recently concluded study—10 years in the making—reveals how aspen stands change their genetic structure over time as trees balance pest defense with growth.

Read the original story  by Eric Hamilton in Grow magazine.

This article was posted in Faculty News, Faculty Research, News.