No reduction in genetic diversity of Swiss stone pine (Pinus cembra L.) in Tatra Mountains despite high fragmentation and small population size

Artur Dzialuk,Igor Chybicki,Nicolae Sofletea,Alain Valadon,Roman Gout,Peter Fleischer,Tomasz Mączka,Heino Konrad,Alexandru Lucian Curtu

doi:10.1007/s10592-014-0628-6

Abstract

In Europe, most of the alpine timberline ecotone has been altered by human activities and climate change. Hence, mountain forests are of the highest conservation interest. Here, we screened 25 populations of Swiss stone pine (Pinus cembra L.) from the Carpathians and the Alps, using a set of ten microsatellite primers to assess the relative conservation value of populations sampled in Polish and Slovak Tatra National Parks, where potential extinction risk is the highest within the Carpathian range. Although endangered, with small and fragmented populations, P. cembra in the Tatra Mts. shows high levels of allelic richness (AR = 5.0) and observed heterozygosity (H o = 0.554). Our results suggest that anthropogenic habitat fragmentation has had little impact on DNA variation of Swiss stone pine in the Tatra Mts. However, the effects of changing conditions on the genetic structure may occur with a substantial time delay due to the long life span of P. cembra. Moreover, inbreeding depression may occur in the next generations, since we found inbreeding (F IS = 0.063) and elevated coancestry coefficient (θ = 0.062) in all populations. Also a shallow pattern of genetic differentiation between populations was found, indicating recent fragmentation of a common gene pool that formerly occupied a larger range. Therefore, the Tatra Mts. can be considered as a single conservation unit. Based on our results, we suggest possible conservation activities for Swiss stone pine both in Poland and Slovakia.

Highlights

In the last two centuries, human impact on the world’s ecosystems has increased and many natural habitats have been changed, degraded, or even destroyed
In order to assess the relative conservation value of stone pine stands in the Tatra Mts., we investigated the levels of genetic polymorphism, inbreeding, coancestry, and effective population size, and tested if a bottleneck had occurred in the recent population history
The private allelic richness (pAR) ranged from \0.01 (A4) to 0.24 (A5) in the Alps and from\0.01 (PL1, UA5) to 0.27 (UA2) in the Carpathians

Summary

Introduction

In the last two centuries, human impact on the world’s ecosystems has increased and many natural habitats have been changed, degraded, or even destroyed. Ecosystems at the distribution limit of a species are of special conservation interest. The timberline designates the limit of forest growth and typically forms a transition zone between. H. Konrad Department of Genetics, Federal Research and Training Centre for Forests, Natural Hazards and Landscapes, Hauptstr. Sofletea Department of Forest Sciences, University of Transilvania, Brasov, Sirul Beethoven-1, 500123 Brasov, Romania

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