FossilvaDynamics of forest tree biodiversity: linking genetic, paleogenetic and plant historical approaches |
The project will improve the link between two fields in ecological sciences: historical botany and population genetics.
Our project aims at promoting new methods of biodiversity assessment which take into account both biological evolution and the spatio-temporal dynamics of ecosystems reacting to climate changes and disturbances.
The project is based on an association between palaeobotanists working on natural fossil archives (lake sediments, peat bogs, buried trunks) (six teams) and plant geneticists (six teams). The past biodiversity of forest tree species will be explored by using fossil material taken from a network of sites covering western Europe. The potential for recovering and studying ancient DNA (aDNA) in plant remains will be systematically explored. Molecular markers will be developed to assist in the taxonomic identification of fossil remains. Further, for some key tree taxa, all of major economical importance, a comparison of the pattern of past intraspecific diversity with the present day pattern will help understand the origin of our modern forests and their rate of disturbance. Progresses in such an innovative project can only be achieved through a strong interdisciplinary approach.