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bcbusiness.ca july 2015 BCBusiness 145 years to reach maturity. If the trees we plant today prove unsuited to the climate of tomor- row, there's no do-over. ocated on the northern fringe of the UBC campus, the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies is a haven of pure research, where professors from diverse disciplines are invited to cross- pollinate ideas. It is here that faculty of forestry professor Sally Aitken is taking a year off from teaching to pursue her research into the genet- ics of local forests. The results of that research will play an important part in informing B.C.'s climate-based approach to reforestation. Aitken, 53, moves a little gingerly as she leads the way down the hall to the Wall Insti- tute's kitchen, explaining along the way that she was "doored" by a motorist as she cycled to work yesterday. She dismisses the incident with a wave of the hand, clearly more inter- ested in talking about trees than the unpre- dictability of Vancouver drivers. With her afternoon espresso in hand, she retraces her steps back to her office, which is deco- rated with photos of camping expeditions in the forests of B.C. Ushering me to the visitor's chair, she proceeds to describe how she and her team have spent the past four years seeking to uncover the genetic secrets of two tree species: interior spruce and lodgepole pine. With University of Alberta professor Andreas Hamann, Aitken is overseeing a $4.7-million, four-year project funded primarily by Genome Canada. The goal of the project, dubbed AdapTree, is to identify genes responsible for specific climate-related characteristics in the two species. Aitken's team analyzed samples taken from 600 trees, hoping to find genetic mark- ers for traits related to adaptation to climate: resistance to drought, for example, or hardy growth in extreme cold. From millions of genetic sequences, the team identified 50,000 genetic markers related specifically to adapta- tion to climate. The final stage of data-gather- ing, underway now, involves analyzing samples from another 6,000 trees in the wild to further refine and validate the results. The data will be complete this summer and will be forwarded to the province. As Aitken explains, the goal is not to use these markers to identify trees that have adapted to warm climates and trans- port them from one location to another. Rather, the idea is to see if genes suited to warmer climates of the future might already be present at low frequency in a given tree population—and then to propagate those trees in that location. Climate (Zone) Change B.C.'s biogeoclimatic zones are expected to change dramatically in the decades to come, impacting which types of trees will grow where alpine tundra spruce - Willow - Birch Boreal White and Black spruce sub-Boreal Pine - spruce sub-Boreal spruce mountain Hemlock engelmann spruce - subalpine Fir montane spruce Bunchgrass Ponderosa Pine interior Douglas Fir coastal Douglas Fir interior cedar - Hemlock coastal Western Hemlock Biogeoclimatic Zones sourCe: TonGli WanG, cenTRe foR foResT conseRvaTion GeneTics, ubc Climate Zones Current Climate Zones 2080s L Aitken's team analyzed samples taken from 600 trees, hoping to find genetic markers for traits related to adaptation to climate: resis- tance to drought, for example, or hardy growth in extreme cold