Will prairie trees survive our changing climate

Source: Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food

Trees across Western Canada are struggling to adapt to rising temperatures and volatile weather. With extreme weather projected to become more common, the result could leave many prairie trees with a grim future.

Now, 60 years after it began researching tree improvements and more than a century after first distributing trees on the prairies, Saskatchewan’s Shelterbelt Centre is taking on the challenge of global warming.

The Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC)-Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA) Shelterbelt Centre was established in 1901 with the purpose of providing settlers with trees and shrubs to protect their homesteads from the harsh prairie winters.

Trees were needed to break up the strong winds and to retain crucial soil moisture, but the harsh prairie climate was demolishing the European-bred seedlings that settlers tried to plant.

“Original settlers came with trees from their own countries. These trees turned out to be unsuitable for the harsh weather and rapid climate changes of the prairies,” explained Dr. Salim Silim, a biologist hired by the centre to help locate genes that might improve drought- and cold-resistance, a process that requires screening thousands of tree species.

The solution was shelterbelts, which are rows of trees and shrubs strong enough to protect the herds, land and homes.

As time went on, the centre made it their mission to not only provide trees but to research and develop species of trees that could withstand harsh prairie winters and sweltering summers.

“The Shelterbelt Centre took on the great responsibility of developing trees that are suitable here,” Silim noted.

“Trees that we have developed and are researching at this time adapt well to our current climate. As the temperature rises, other factors come into play, such as drought, changing winter, as well as fall and spring conditions in which the temperature is very cold then very warm,” he said.

“A huge challenge that we are meeting right now is the fast rate of change in the environment, which will result in poor performance, poor growth and eventually the death of many trees.”

The work the Shelterbelt Centre is doing to adapt trees to the effects of climate change includes characterizing the traits that help trees and shrubs survive the unpredictable fall and spring conditions. There are several traits that must be present in trees and shrubs in order for them to survive these climate changes.

“The ability for trees and shrubs to be dormant early, to respond to temperature very quickly, and to stop growth when it warms up very quickly are important determinates of the trees’ survival,” Silim stated.

The Shelterbelt Centre essentially identifies the traits that lead to adaptability, and then uses the traits to screen different populations of trees from different areas. The next step is to use these traits to select the species of trees that will be suitable for future prairie weather conditions.

“Different populations result from trees that have grown in different micro-environments and have adapted to environments differently. Some are much more adaptable than others, depending on where they have been growing for hundreds of years,” Silim said.

For more information, contact:
Dr. Salim Silim, Special Project Biologist
AAFC-PFRA Shelterbelt Centre
Phone: (306) 695-5139