20 results match your criteria: "Federal Research Centre for Forests[Affiliation]"

Genetic and phenotypic evidence suggest the existence of indigenous olive population of wild var. sylvestris in the Carmel coast, southern Levant.

BMC Plant Biol

September 2024

Department of Vegetable and Field Crops, Institute of Plant Sciences, Agricultural Research Organization, The Volcani Institute, Rishon LeZion, 7505101, Israel.

Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the genetic identity of naturally growing olives (NGOs) in the Carmel region, proposed as a primary domestication center for olives, amid concerns of hybridization with cultivated varieties.
  • Researchers mapped over 1,000 NGOs and used genetic analysis to confirm the presence of a genuine wild olive population, while noting that some NGOs near residential areas displayed hybrid characteristics.
  • The findings highlight the importance of the genuine wild olive populations in relation to ancient olive cultivation and propose a conservation plan to protect these valuable genetic resources.
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A previous study on the encroachment of North American northern red oak L. into the mesic Scots pine forest (in central Poland) revealed high abundances of seedlings and saplings under shrubs, with lower abundances in open areas or clumps of bilberry L. It was unclear whether the regeneration success of is enhanced by the presence of shrubs due to their "nurse effect", and how burying acorns of different sizes in soil or moss affects the survival of oak seeds and seedlings (a "burial effect").

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Standing deadwood is an important structural component of forest ecosystems. Its occurrence and dynamics influence both carbon fluxes and the availability of habitats for many species. However, deadwood is greatly reduced in managed, and even in many currently unmanaged temperate forests in Europe.

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Background: Despite the increasing number of epigenomic studies in plants, little is known about the forces that shape the methylome in long-lived woody perennials. The Lombardy poplar offers an ideal opportunity to investigate the impact of the individual environmental history of trees on the methylome.

Results: We present the results of three interconnected experiments on Lombardy poplar.

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High levels of phenotypic plasticity are thought to be inherently costly in stable or extreme environments, but enhanced plasticity may evolve as a response to new environments and foster novel phenotypes. Heliosperma pusillum forms glabrous alpine and pubescent montane ecotypes that diverged recurrently and polytopically (parallel evolution) and can serve as evolutionary replicates. The specific alpine and montane localities are characterized by distinct temperature conditions, available moisture, and light.

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Biotic threats for 23 major non-native tree species in Europe.

Sci Data

August 2021

Institute of Lowland Forestry and Environment (ILFE), University of Novi Sad, Antona Cehova 13d, 21 000, Novi Sad, Serbia.

For non-native tree species with an origin outside of Europe a detailed compilation of enemy species including the severity of their attack is lacking up to now. We collected information on native and non-native species attacking non-native trees, i.e.

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Sequencing of Complete Chloroplast Genomes.

Methods Mol Biol

March 2021

Department of Genetics, Austrian Federal Research Centre for Forests (BFW), Vienna, Austria.

In this chapter, frequently used methods for elucidating sequence and structure of chloroplast genomes are reviewed, as a current best practice guide. This concerns methods for DNA extraction, sequencing library preparation, and bioinformatics (assembly, verification, annotation, and sequence comparisons). Recommendations for standard data reporting practices are given-chloroplast genome sequencing reports can be highly formalized, and publication in the form of standard data reports is the best option for comparison and meta-analysis purposes.

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Why European biodiversity reporting is not reliable.

Ambio

April 2021

Department for Forest Genetics, Austrian Federal Research Centre for Forests (BFW), Seckendorff-Gudent Weg 8, 1131, Vienna, Austria.

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) aims to end the loss of biodiversity, which is one of the greatest ecological challenges of our time. The lack of success in biodiversity policy implementation is partly related to gaps in biodiversity monitoring. Our overall objective is to contribute to the preparation of the upcoming post 2020 period by a review of biodiversity indicator choices in European CBD reports and hence in national monitoring systems.

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Epigenetic Analysis through MSAP-NGS Coupled Technology: The Case Study of White Poplar Monoclonal Populations/Stands.

Int J Mol Sci

October 2020

Department of Chemistry and Biology "A. Zambelli", University of Salerno, via Giovanni Paolo II 132, 84084 Fisciano (SA), Italy.

Over the last several decades, several lines of evidence have shown that epigenetic modifications modulate phenotype and mediate an organism's response to environmental stimuli. Plant DNA is normally highly methylated, although notable differences exist between species. Many biomolecular techniques based on PCR have been developed to analyse DNA methylation status, however a qualitative leap was made with the advent of next-generation sequencing (NGS).

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Invasive alien species (IAS) are one of the major threats to global and local biodiversity. In forest ecosystems, the threats caused by IAS include hybridization, transmission of diseases and species competition. This review sets out to analyze the impact of alien plant species on forest regeneration, which we consider to be one of the key stages in tree ecology for the survival of forest ecosystems in the future.

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In the absence of genetic diversity, plants rely on the capacity of phenotypic plasticity to cope with shifts in environmental conditions. Understanding the mechanisms behind phenotypic plasticity and how local phenotypic adjustments are transferred to clonal offspring, will provide insight into its ecological and evolutionary significance. Epigenetic changes have recently been proposed to play a crucial role in rapid environmental adaptation.

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Article Synopsis
  • Fire plays a crucial role in global carbon and nitrogen cycling, significantly affecting both direct losses during combustion and postfire nitrogen losses, which are less understood.
  • The study measured direct carbon and nitrogen losses during a high-intensity fire in central Spain, finding that combustion resulted in losses of 9.4 Mg C/ha and 129 kg N/ha, with fire drastically increasing soil mineral nitrogen concentrations over time.
  • Postfire emissions of nitrogen gases and leaching losses were also examined, revealing that 33% of the nitrogen formed was retained in stable soil pools, while a substantial portion escaped, highlighting the importance of considering these losses in future assessments of fire impacts on ecosystems.
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Background: , which is endemic to Mexico, is currently listed as "Endangered" on the Red List. Chihuahua spruce is only found in the Sierra Madre Occidental (SMO), Mexico. About 42,600 individuals are distributed in forty populations.

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The widespread poplar populations of Sardinia are vegetatively propagated and live in different natural environments forming large monoclonal stands. The main goals of the present study were: i) to investigate/measure the epigenetic diversity of the poplar populations by determining their DNA methylation status; ii) to assess if and how methylation status influences population clustering; iii) to shed light on the changes that occur in the epigenome of ramets of the same poplar clone. To these purposes, 83 white poplar trees were sampled at different locations on the island of Sardinia.

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This chapter introduces and reviews methods for analyzing variation in chloroplast DNA, mainly by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and subsequent revelation of polymorphisms. Sources for chloroplast primers are discussed, as well as methods such as Sanger sequencing, PCR followed by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP), gel electrophoresis, fragment analysis on automated DNA sequencers, denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography (dHPLC), and next-generation sequencing (NGS). A special section deals with peculiarities of chloroplast DNA variation, such as tandem repeats and mini- and microsatellites.

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Prunus africana--an evergreen tree found in Afromontane forests--is used in traditional medicine to cure benign prostate hyperplasia. Different bioactive constituents derived from bark extracts from 20 tree populations sampled throughout the species' natural range in Africa were studied by means of GC-MSD. The average concentration [mg/kgw/w] in increasing order was: lauric acid (18), myristic acid (22), n-docosanol (25), ferulic acid (49), β-sitostenone (198), β-sitosterol (490), and ursolic acid (743).

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In chemistry, the law of mass action describes how variations in the concentrations of chemical compounds lead to different chemical reaction outcomes. Does the extent of hybridization, or more particularly, the formation of hybrid offspring, likewise depend on the local abundance of pollen from compatible species in systems as complex as tall trees which depend on (insect) pollinators? In this issue of Molecular Ecology, Field et al. (2011a) present a study involving two ecologically divergent eucalypt species.

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Scattered populations of the same tree species in montane forests through Africa have led to speculations on the origins of distributions. Here, we inferred the colonization history of the Afromontane tree Prunus africana using seven chloroplast DNA loci to study 582 individuals from 32 populations sampled in a range-wide survey from across Africa, revealing 22 haplotypes. The predominant haplotype, HT1a, occurred in 13 populations of eastern and southern Africa, while a second common haplotype, HT1m, occurred in populations of western Uganda and western Africa.

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The seemingly eternal cycles of clonal growth in many tree species, with members of Populus (aspen, poplars, cottonwoods and the like) featuring most prominently, provoke a number of questions on the interface between ecology, genetics and forestry. In this issue, two groups present their approaches to clonal dynamics (Ally et al. 2008 and Mock et al.

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A database of PCR primers for the chloroplast genomes of higher plants.

Plant Methods

February 2007

Department of Genetics, Federal Research Centre for Forests, Hauptstrasse 7, Vienna, Austria.

Background: Chloroplast genomes evolve slowly and many primers for PCR amplification and analysis of chloroplast sequences can be used across a wide array of genera. In some cases 'universal' primers have been designed for the purpose of working across species boundaries. However, the essential information on these primer sequences is scattered throughout the literature.

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