Taken by surprise: treesfacing climate change

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Arvid Hallén, Director General of The Research Council of Norway shedslight on how the country will benefit from the Horizon 2020 programmeand the opportunities it will present…

Horizon 2020 is an extensive knowledge bankunder construction, and it would be unthinkablefor Norway as a nation not to participate in

this wide-ranging initiative.

It is widely accepted in Norway that taking part in EU-funded research projects gives research communitiesthe opportunity to join important European networksand cooperate with top-notch researchers abroad.Norwegian research policy is based on this premise,and in general the priorities of Horizon 2020 are inline with Norwegian priorities. The Norwegiangovernment has formulated an ambitious strategy toincrease the country’s participation in Horizon 2020.

Horizon 2020 offers major benefits to Norwegian research and trade and industryNorway, too, must find ways to resolve societalchallenges ranging from an ageing population torenewable energy, and the country cannot do this onits own. Horizon 2020 will play a valuable role in the

development of Norwegian research, trade andindustry. Increased participation in Horizon 2020 willpromote greater internationalisation of Norwegianresearch, thereby raising the level of quality overall.Further societal impacts are expected in the form ofgreater innovation, new products and markets forindustry and a stronger ability to meet future challenges.

Norway: an attractive partnerNorwegian researchers have achieved good successin the previous framework programmes in fieldssuch as climate, energy, marine and polar research.A number of Norwegian research institutions areworld leaders in these fields. As such, they are attractiveas partners for their European counterparts andcan make an important contribution to dealing withsocietal challenges at the European level.

Norway possesses unique longitudinal data series,with information about health, education and othersocio-economic factors for large segments of the

High aspirations for Norway in Horizon 2020

population over long time periods. The potential ofthese data series for comparative studies in thehealth and social sciences should be better exploitedby national, as well as international research groups.

Great expectations for Norwegian participationin health-related projects under Horizon 2020The goal for participation under the Horizon 2020challenge “Health, demographic change and wellbeing”is to double the number of successful projects comparedwith the FP7 Health programme, and bring Norway’slevel up to that of its neighbouring countries, Sweden,Denmark and Finland. The Research Council ofNorway is funding 9 national Centres of Excellence(SFF) and 4 national Centres for Research-basedInnovation (SFI) within the field of health to buildand strengthen research groups of top internationalstandard. Norway also participates in the EU’s JointProgramming Initiatives (JPIs) on health and isinvolved in health-related infrastructures at theEuropean level.

Norway’s national biobank is a vital infrastructure forthe health sciences. The biobank provides a basis foroutstanding research and innovation, enhancesNorway’s ability to participate in international researchprojects and makes Norwegian research institutionsattractive partners for comparative studies. There isalso major potential for the further development ofhealth clusters.

Specially-targeted Norwegian support schemesThe Research Council has initiated several fundingschemes to support Norwegian participation in Horizon 2020. This includes funding to cover expensesin connection with the preparation of grant applicationsand support for institutions taking part in policy discussions at the European level.

Norway has a comparatively large number of independent research institutes outside the universityand university college sector. These institutes mustbe competitive and able to respond to the need forresearch-based knowledge in both industry and thepublic sector. The Research Council has introduced atargeted support scheme to encourage these institutesto take part in EU-funded projects.

The Research Council seeks to align national researchprogrammes and funding schemes with the prioritiesof various European networks, while facilitatingaccess to the European research front for Norwegianresearchers.

We are currently expanding our staff dedicated tomobilising and guiding applicants to more successfulparticipation in Horizon 2020. The Council advisesNorwegian researchers to apply for funding underHorizon 2020 before applying for national funding,when possible. Given political willingness andfocus, targeted funding instruments and the growinginterest in and understanding of researchers of thesignificance of the EU research arena, we have greatexpectations and high aspirations for Norwegianparticipation in the world’s largest research programme.

Arvid HallénDirector GeneralResearch Council of NorwayTel: +47 22 03 70 00 ahl@forskningsradet.nowww.forskningsradet.no/

Arvid Hallén, Director General, Research Council of Norway

Editorial Feature

Investing in the future of agriculturePhil Hogan, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development atthe European Commission details the importance of investment andinnovation in agriculture…

Agriculture is humankind’s primary occupation –the only economic activity which can be trulysaid to nourish the world.

The principle of food security needs to be a top prior-ity for policymakers. However, while the challenges ofenhanced food security and reduced food waste arenot new, it is opportune for all actors – as guardiansof the agricultural sector – to renew our commitmentto these principles, and resolve to widen and deepenour structures for cooperation.

Europe has a deep well of experience in shared agricultural governance. We have reformed ourCommon Agricultural Policy, which operates in the 28member states of the EU and its 500 million citizens,to be more dynamic and market oriented.

As a result we have seen considerable investment and innovation flowing into agri-businesses. Our goal

is to consistently and sustainably produce high qualityproduct for consumers the world over.

We believe this makes sense, and that our policies will deliver food security, incentivise waste reduction,nurture the environment, but also – crucially –demonstrate that working in agriculture can be goodbusiness, particularly for younger people.

Giving farmers the freedom to participate in theglobal market will serve all these goals. Let me beclear: the subsidies and protectionism of another eraare gone, and we must all adapt to the 21st Centuryaccordingly, and with confidence.

Nonetheless, targeted measures can incentivise farmers to play their part in our shared ambitions.Intelligent policy and sound governance can be realcatalysts for change. Together, we must develop sustainable food systems and focus the international

debate on increasing productivity, while continuing to address climate change and the sustainable management of natural resources.

We must promote a knowledge-based agriculture,strengthening research and innovation, and bridgingthe communication gap between farmers, researchersand agri-business. By transmitting research outcomesto farmers, and incentivising them to participate inthe right research projects, we unleash their potentialto drive the changes we are discussing here today.

Agriculture has always been an innovative sector, but the global food imperatives are now of such amagnitude that we need to innovate more, and innovate faster, if we are to achieve our goals. Agriculture must continue to become more productiveand more efficient.

We must therefore continue to strengthen the Agriculture Market Information System and enhancethe contribution of the annual Meeting of the Agriculture Chief Scientists, through the framework of the G20.

We must broaden the burden of food waste reductionto include the manufacturing, retail and consumerlevels. Indeed, the main players in these sectors mustbegin to take a greater degree of responsibility in thisshared challenge, and I encourage them to engageconstructively in the coming months.

We must likewise focus on reducing on-farm andpost-harvest losses for farmers.

Finally – and crucially – we must create the enablingenvironment to bring the private sector fully into thisequation: productivity and sustainability cannot beachieved without investment. This means developingappropriate and accessible financial instruments onmultiple levels, to provide farmers with the finance tosupport the significant on-farm investment requiredto facilitate these changes. This is a model we are currently pursuing with vigour and determination inthe European Union.

Our fundamental shared challenge is this: how can we increase production while respecting our naturalresources and reducing waste – how can we producemore, using less?

The EU “farm family” has 28 members, with differingneeds and expectations, and we have learned manylessons during our shared journey towards a modernagricultural policy. We are willing, and committed, tosharing this bank of knowledge with our global partners.

In Europe, we consider our farmers to be custodiansof the soil. As policymakers, our aim is to give themthe tools and supports to produce more food – efficiently, productively, and sustainably.

Let us therefore resolve to work together, in everypossible forum, with every willing partner, to providethe global leadership needed.

Europe stands ready to play its part.

Phil HoganCommissioner for Agriculture and Rural DevelopmentEuropean Commissionhttp://ec.europa.eu/commission/2014-2019/hogan_en

Phil Hogan, Commissioner for Agriculture and RegionalDevelopment at the European Commission

Editorial Feature

Challenges trees face Climate change is one of the most serious global challenges to ecosystems and societies. Models of theIntergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC)project that with current emission levels the meanambient surface temperature will rise by 2.6-4.8°C atthe end of the century. The north and east of theNordic regions will warm substantially more, exceedingwhat most forest eco-systems will be able to handle.While agriculture might benefit from a longer growingseason and from expansion of cereal cultivationnorthwards, the situation for Nordic forests is moreambiguous. IPCC and the International Union ofForest Research Organizations (IUFRO) project thatforest distribution and species composition willchange drastically. The impact will be substantial, asan estimated 55-75% of Northern Europe is coveredby forests. Forests are important as reservoirs of biodiversity, and as wildlife habitats. In addition, theyrepresent substantial economic value, provide societal,

health and recreational benefits, and mitigate climatechange by storing carbon dioxide. Warming may alsoresult in more frequent weather instabilities, withunusual fluctuations in humidity and temperature.Some areas will experience increased precipitation,while other areas will become drier and hotter. Morefrequent storms and pest outbreaks are likely toincrease die-off and decay of many trees. Althoughwarming might temporarily increase carbon dioxide(CO2) storage in temperate forests, migration-relatedforest destruction and increased conversion of organicsoil matter may turn forests into carbon sources.

Seeing the treesThere is a saying: ‘Not seeing the forest for the trees’,which means so much as not seeing the bigger picture,and having eye for the details only. Scientifically, theopposite is necessary. Detailed information from lowerlevels facilitates the understanding of higher-levelphenomena. To understand the impact climate change

Taken by surprise: treesfacing climate change

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might have on future forests, it is necessary to ‘haveour eyes on trees’. More specifically, we need to payattention to the parts of a tree, and gaze even deeperinto their tissues. In particular, we need to understandmeristems. They contain the stem cells that are theultimate source of the tissues that make up a tree.How does a tree protect its delicate meristems inwinter? How will this capacity be compromised whenthe environment loses its faithfulness, and becomeserratic? ‘Not seeing the trees’ would give a blurred picture of the impact of climate change. In the follow-ing, we explain our research on meristems, and thestrategies trees have evolved to cope with inhospitableseasons. Specifically, we discuss the concern thatweather instabilities will compromise the ancient and fine-tuned interplay between trees and their environment.

Tree architectureWe investigate birch and poplar, two representativedeciduous tree species that both are common in theboreal and temperate climate zones. They have relatively long life spans, and grow over many seasons,during which intricate branching patterns arise. Eachspecies confirms to an ‘architectural model’, a conceptthat refers to the genetic framework upon which thetree becomes constructed. The complexity of thecrown arises through internal competition of branches,and in interaction with the environment. The firstphases in the life of a young tree or ‘sapling’ are crucial to its survival. During its first year hybrid aspen(poplar family) grows as fast as possible, investingeverything in the quest for light. At the shoot apex sits a tiny meristem with rapidly dividing cells. This so-called shoot apical meristem is a remarkablecentre of cell renewal and pattern formation. It tirelesslyproduces leaves that with almost mathematical preci-sion are arranged around the stem in a species-spe-cific phyllotactic pattern. Simultaneously, the apicalmeristem distributes to the axils of emerging leavescells that form daughter meristems, which in turndevelop into side-buds and branches. Meristems notonly underlie tree architecture, they are also crucial inflowering, fruit production and overall survival. Wetherefore are investigating how they are organisedand how they function.

Communication is keyIn a seed, the shoot apical meristem arises as an integral part of the embryo, but after germination, itfunctions as a highly autonomous, self-regulatingdevelopmental entity. This is illustrated dramaticallyby classic microsurgery experiments, which show that excised meristems can regenerate into completeplants, whereas halved meristems can give rise to twocomplete meristems. The intact meristem is a marvelin itself, as it maintains its characteristic organizationdespite the fact that it continuously produces andreleases cells to the growing shoot. This implies thatindividual cells behave in accordance with the positionthey occupy in the meristem. We therefore proposeda model that depicts the meristem as dynamic, robust,and self-organizing. In contrast to the situation inanimal cells, this does not involve reshuffling of cells,as plant cells are immobile. Plant cells are born by cell division inside expanding cell walls, as if roomswere internally subdivided and then enlarged. Duringenlargement they displace other cells toward theperiphery, where they exit the meristem. Maintenanceof the overall organization of the meristem requiresthat cells communicate their position and local tasksto the other meristem cells in a dance of reciprocalsignalling. The signals, signal paths, and the specificsof the network are poorly understood.

We have shown in early work, that numerous minute communication channels interconnect all meristemcells into an online cell community. These channels,called plasmodesmata, can be in an open or closedstate, but they can also be opened wide by some proteins that are required for tasks in the adjacentcells. Some of these proteins are transcription factors,which shuttle themselves to neighbouring cell to regulate gene expression. At specific positions in themeristem, plasmodesmata are shut, defining bound-aries and functionally subdividing the cell community.Cells are group-wise coupled into communicationcompartments, called symplasmic fields, where cellsshare metabolites and small signalling molecules. The central field of the meristem harbours stem cells.An additional layer of communication, prevalent inanimal cells, is present in the form of excreted signalmolecules. These signals bind to receptor molecules,

embedded in cell membrane of the neighbouringcells, evoking a response. Interestingly, the two mostcrucial genes, WUSCHEL and CLAVATA3, which main-tain the balance of the proliferating meristem, utilise asignalling network that engaged both, plasmodesmataand membrane bound receptors.

Sensing the environmentThe symplasmic channels that form the communicationnexus of the meristem are vulnerable to low tempera-tures. Trees in temperate zones therefore carefullymonitor the environment to fine-tune their growthcycle to the changing seasons. How they achieve thisis not well understood. We do know that trees monitorthe length of the day and that, when day length hasdropped below a critical value, they execute a wintersurvival strategy even if temperatures are still high.Day length is measured by a system of photosensitivepigments in the leaves that give input to a so-calledmolecular clock, which in turn sends signals to themeristems. The signals are delivered via the phloem,a living tube system that transports sugars from theleaves to growing areas, but which simultaneously isan information highway that conveys long-distancemessages. The shoot apical meristem respondsinstantaneously to the timing signals by ceasing theproduction of elongating shoot parts, and switchingto a program of terminal bud formation. The terminalbud, as well as the side buds, are survival packagesthat contain a compressed shoot system that kickstarts growth in spring.

Deep sleepThe establishment of a dormant state completes terminal bud formation. We have discovered that thecells of the meristem are physically decoupled fromthe communication network that they collectivelymaintain. Decoupling is an effective measure to arrestsupracellular developmental activities, and preventpremature flushing. It is achieved by installing specificstructures at the entrances of plasmodesmata, whichblock the passage of molecules between cells. Thesestructures function as circuit breakers in the symplasmiccircuitry of the meristem, turning a society of commu-nicating cells into a collection of off-line individuals.

The isolated cells then turn inward, and change geneexpression to redirect cellular physiology toward afreezing-tolerant, dehydrated, and low-metabolicstate. Dormancy initiation thus appears to have thedual function of arresting developmental patterning,and priming for freezing-tolerance, both of which areessential to survive Nordic winters.

Untimely wake-up callsOur work has shown that chilling induces the expres-sion of genes that encode enzymes that hydrolyze callose, a sugar polymer that constitutes the blockingagent in the circuit breakers at plasmodesmata. Suffi-cient chilling removes the callose, de facto restoringthe symplasmic communication network. Nonetheless,communication is minimal under low temperatures when meristems are in a state of relative dehydration,and the metabolic activity that is left is redirectedtowards cellular survival. Long-term chilling not onlyreleases dormancy, it also increases freezing toler-ance. As a consequence, the inactive but non-dor-mant system will become highly freezing tolerant, butpoised for rapid growth once temperatures rise inspring. During this awakening process, meristemsrapidly lose their freezing-tolerance, a process calledde-acclimation.

The fine-tuning of the tree’s life cycle, based on photoperiod recognition and chilling-responsiveness,functions beautifully in native species when the climate is faithful. A worry is that climate instabilitymight change this. Because terminal bud formation,dormancy, and leaf abscission are regulated by pho-toperiod, their timing in the autumn is not expectedto change. A potentially serious danger is that oncedormancy is released by chilling, usually in the earlypart of winter, long warm spells in mid-winter canawake the buds. As a result of such untimely wake-upcalls, cells can de-acclimate and lose freezing-tolerance,leaving them vulnerable to returning frost. It is notlikely that this would kill a tree, although repeatedatrocities might do so, but it will compromise woodquality through the death of leader shoots and theresulting erratic branching patterns. At present, weknow too little about how heat sums will affect

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meristem awakening in different species to make any precise predictions.

That climate change might compromise the fine-tunedrelationship between plant meristems and their environment has received little attention in climatemodels. We urgently need to increase our knowledgeand understanding of the survival strategies foresttrees rely on, and the degree of resilience they confer.We hope for a growing awareness of the urgency ofclimate change among policy makers, the public,forest owners and forest-based industries. Norwaysupports forest research, among others through theNorwegian Research Council, who has financed mostof our research in the recent past. We anticipate thatour focus on trees and their meristems will help togenerate much-needed knowledge to enrich ‘thebigger picture’, which will benefit Nordic forests,under threat of climate change.

Listening to treesTrees, as a final note, have value beyond the above.Their yearly cycle marks seasonal progression andvisualizes the rhythmicity of life. In parks and forests,they create spaces for physical activities, retreat and

reflection. Trees mean more for our well-being thanwe might realize, and their sheer beauty, longevity andsize arouse creative inspiration. Tree rhythms foundtheir audible expression in a violin concerto, by JohnWilliams, premiered at Tanglewood in 2000. The concerto, named ‘Tree Song’, has three movements:‘Doctor Hu and the Metasequoia’, ‘Trunks, Branches,Leaves’, and ‘The Tree Sings’. For who has eyes and ears.

Dr Christiaan van der SchootProfessorTel: +47 6723 2805chris.vanderschoot@nmbu.no

Dr Päivi LH RinneResearch-ProfessorTel: +47 6723 2804paivi.rinne@nmbu.no

Norwegian University of Life SciencesChristian Magnus Fahlsens vei 181432 Ås, Norwaywww.nmbu.no

Norwegian University of Life SciencesChristian Magnus Fahlsens vei 181432 Ås, Norwaywww.nmbu.no

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