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Research (published in Science) led by Profs Richard Nichols and Richard Buggs has uncovered early-stage signs of natural resistance to ash dieback—a fungal disease expected to kill half of the UK's 80 million ash trees. By comparing the DNA of older trees, present before the fungus arrived in 2012, with younger saplings, the team identified subtle genetic shifts across thousands of locations around the ash genome. These shifts suggest that the natural selection is favouring variants that confer greater disease resistance in young trees regenerating on the woodland flour under the dying mature trees.

This adaptive response offers hope that future generations will be able to enjoy ash woodlands, and the research will be used to design human interventions to accelerate the adaptation, including avoiding unnecessary felling to maintain the populations' genetic diversity.

The Guardian and the BBC reported on this story.