The IRNAS-CSIC is developing a project on the impact of climate change on the Andalusian pastures.

The Institute of Natural Resources and Agrobiology of Seville (IRNAS) of the Spanish National Research Council, with the support of the Biodiversity Foundation, has developed the project “Epigenetics and adaptive evolution of herbaceous plants in Andalusian pastures in the face of climate change (EPIGEHESA)”.

The main objective of the “EPIGEHESA” project has been to determine, by means of molecular biology techniques, the response capacity and adaptive potential of a herbaceous species typical of the Mediterranean grassland (Hordeum murinum), in the face of future environmental conditions of increased aridity and temperature predicted by climate change models. To this end, the impact of climate change on genetic and epigenetic variability in Hordeum murinum and its impact on certain key ecosystem services (such as productivity and quality of pasture for livestock) was experimentally evaluated, using a system of infrastructures for the exclusion of rainfall (30% reduction) and temperature increase (with heating chambers) in two pastures located in the Pedroches Valley.

The analysis of polymorphic markers amplified by the AFLP technique revealed a high genetic variability, typical of a species with a complex taxonomy, as well as the possession of genomes with controversial polyploidy. In addition, the result of the epigenetic variability analysis, carried out using the MSAP technique, also revealed a high diversity in global methylation patterns in response to different climate treatments. These results show the importance of epigenetic control processes by DNA methylation, which presumably provide the plant with a high degree of phenotypic plasticity in the face of changing environmental conditions and, therefore, a high capacity to acclimatize to the increase in aridity and temperature predicted by climate change models.