Comparative Assessment of the Gene Pool and the Viability of Forest Plantations from Moscow and Natural Populations from the Moscow Region by Example of Norway Spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.)

Abstract

The genetic diversity of four population of Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) in Moscow parks have been studied. For the first time, a comparison of the gene pool of planted stands in urban areas with the gene pool of natural populations and planted stands of the Moscow region investigated earlier revealed a significant reduction in the genetic diversity of planted stands of Moscow parks in comparison with conditionally native populations from the Moscow region. In three of the four urban planted stands, a decrease was revealed in the proportion of polymorphic loci (down to 0.41 and 0.50) compared to conditionally native forests (0.64). All plant stands do not differ from conditionally native in terms of average heterozygosity and average number of alleles per locus. However, the test for allelic frequency heterogeneity demonstrated a significant difference of all planted stands (from Moscow and the Moscow region) from conditionally native populations both by 3–11 loci and by all (17) polymorphic loci. The quality of the gene pool of three of the four Moscow planted stands was evaluated as unsatisfactory and one of them as critical. A reduction in viability of urban planted stands with a reduced gene pool diversity was revealed: two of the three plantations died. In our opinion, this is a consequence of the sharp deviations of the observed diversity of the gene pool of the studied plantations from the natural norm, i.e., an optimal state of the gene pool historical in this natural area. Thus, economic necessity of genetic control over the state of saplings in reforestation is obvious.