During this current outbreak, mountain pine beetle (MPB) has killed pines across more than 15 million hectares in British Columbia and Alberta. MPB is poised to continue its relentless spread through the jack pine of Canada’s boreal forests. This team will investigate how MPB and pine genetic variation influences MPB spread – focusing on the link between climate and adaptive variation – using an innovative combination of functional genomics, population genomics and spread risk modelling. The outputs of this research will be translated into a state-of-the-art suite of tools applicable to adaptive forest management in the face of MPB and climate change.