Interannual adjustments in stomatal and leaf morphological traits of European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) demonstrate its climate change acclimation potential.

The current projections of climate change might exceed the ability of European forest trees to adapt to upcoming environmental conditions. However, stomatal and leaf morphological traits could greatly influence the acclimation potential of forest tree species subjected to global warming, including the single most important forestry species in Europe, European beech. We analysed stomatal (guard cell length, stomatal density and potential conductance index) and leaf (leaf area, leaf dry weight and leaf mass per area) morphological traits of ten provenances from two provenance trials with contrasting climates between 2016 and 2020. The impact of meteorological conditions of the current and preceding year on stomatal and leaf traits was tested by linear and quadratic regressions. Ecodistance was used to capture the impact of adaptation after the transfer of provenances to new environments. Interactions of trial-provenance and trial-year factors were significant for all measured traits. Guard cell length was lowest and stomatal density was highest across beech provenances in the driest year, 2018. Adaptation was also reflected in a significant relationship between aridity ecodistance and measured traits. Moreover, the meteorological conditions of the preceding year affected the interannual variability of stomatal and leaf traits more than the meteorological conditions of the spring of the current year, suggesting the existence of plant stress memory. High intraspecific variability of stomatal and leaf traits controlled by the interaction of adaptation, acclimation and plant memory suggests a high acclimation potential of European beech provenances under future conditions of global climate change.

Inheritance and linkage of allozymes in a Balkan endemic, Pinus peuce Griseb.

This article presents a study of isozyme variation in Pinus peuce Griseb., a Balkan endemic. Among the enzyme systems studied, five were monomorphic and eight were polymorphic in at least one locus. The segregation analysis of the polymorphic loci were consistent with a Mendelian mode of inheritance. No significant deviation from the expected ratio was observed both at the individual and pooled segregation data levels. Segregation patterns were homogeneous across individuals. Two significant linkage groups were found in P. peuce: FEST-2:LAP-2 and 6PG-1:6PG-2, which correspond to the results obtained for other pine species.

Genetic differentiation of oak populations within the Quercus robur/Quercus petraea complex in Central and Eastern Europe.

Genetic structure of 25 indigenous populations of sessile and pedunculate oaks (Quercus petraea and Q. robur), originating from three geographical regions: Slovakia, Bulgaria and the Republic Mari-El (Russia), was investigated using isozyme markers. Mean number of alleles per locus ranged between 1.8 and 2.6 in Q. robur populations and from 2.0 to 3.0 in Q. petraea populations; slightly higher expected heterozygosity values were found in Q. robur compared to Q. petraea. One locus, coding for a substrate-nonspecific dehydrogenase, differentiated the two species. The interspecific component of gene diversity was 46.7% at this locus, compared to 0.4-7.8% at the remaining loci.

Diverging trends between heterozygosity and allelic richness during postglacial colonization in the European beech.

Variation at 12 polymorphic isozyme loci was studied in the European beech on the basis of an extensive sample of 389 populations distributed throughout the species range. Special emphasis was given to the analysis of the pattern of geographic variation on the basis of two contrasting measures of genetic diversity, gene diversity (H) and allelic richness, and to their relationship. Measures of allelic richness were corrected for variation in sample size by using the rarefaction method. As expected, maximum allelic richness was found in the southeastern part of the range (southern Italy and the Balkans), where beech was confined during the last ice age. Surprisingly, H was lower in refugia than in recently colonized regions, resulting in a negative correlation between the two diversity measures. The decrease of allelic richness and the simultaneous increase of H during postglacial recolonization was attributed to several processes that differentially affect the two diversity parameters, such as bottlenecks due to long-distance founding events, selection during population establishment, and increased gene flow at low population densities.

Selection effects of air pollution on gene pools of Norway spruce, European silver fir and European beech.

The effects of industrial pollution on allelic and genotypic structures of Norway spruce. European silver fir and European beech were investigated by means of isozyme analysis. In a mixed Norway spruce-silver fir forest stand in an area heavily polluted by sulphur dioxide and heavy metals in the region of Spis (eastern Slovakia), pairs of neighbouring damaged and apparently healthy trees were selected in two replicates (44 and 69 pairs in a heavily and moderately damaged stand, respectively). Pairwise sampling of trees with contrasting vitality was applied to reduce potential effects of site heterogeneity on the vitality of sampled trees. No significant differences in allelic and genotypic frequencies were found between sets of healthy and declining trees. There were differences in the single-locus heterozygosities, but these were not consistent between the replicates. However, the set of damaged trees exhibited higher levels of genetic multiplicity and diversity, possibly due to the deleterious effect of rare alleles under the conditions of air pollution. Consequently. following the decline of pollutant-sensitive trees, the remaining stand will be depleted of a part of alleles with unknown adaptive value to future selection pressures.