engleski

Non-native forest tree species in Europe: the question of seed origin in afforestation

Non-native tree species have been introduced in Europe since the 16th 84 century, but only in the second half of the 20th century the significance of the seed source origin was recognized, resulting in the establishment of numerous provenance trials at a national, regional, as well as European and International level, led by IUFRO, for economically important non-native tree species. In addition to provenance testing, breeding programs have also been launched for several economically important species in Europe. Aim of this work is the formulation of provenance recommendations for planting of five non-native tree species in Europe, based on the results of a survey, carried out in the frame of the EU FP- 1403 NNEXT Cost Action and the information provided by twenty countries. It was revealed that national recommendations and results from provenance trials established at a pan- European, regional or national level exist mainly for Douglas fir, grand fir, Sitka spruce, lodgepole pine and black locust. Genetic testing effort varied across Europe, except for Douglas fir that was tested extensively across the whole continent, indicating the pan-European interest for the species. Official and nonofficial provenance recommendations exist to a different extend for the different species, with Douglas fir being the species with recommendations in almost all countries. The compilation of provenance recommendations per species and across the continent is presented in the current work. Besides the recommended introduced seed sources though European seed sources are also preferred for planting, due to ease of access and high availability. European breeding programs with significant improvements in productivity and quality comprise an important source of high quality reproductive material and constitute the source of choice for some species and countries. The need though to consolidate the trial data across countries and provide results of a joint analysis for the whole continent emerged as a necessity, while ‘Universal- Response-Functions’ should be developed for the species of interest to better utilize existing provenance data and allow predictions for global change. New trial series with provenances from the entire climatic range and trial sites established within and outside of the species climatic range are urgently needed for a better understanding of the species- specific climate constraints and the correlations between functional trait variation and the environmental conditions of trial sites and origins of the tested seed sources for the selection of forest reproductive material of non native tree species in the face of climate change.

provenance recommendations ; forest reproductive material ; European forestry ; seed sources ; genetic tests ; breeding programs

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