A nature reserve as a repository of genetic richness – The case of European larch from the Gorce Mountains

• Published in: Journal for nature conservation 2023-08, Vol.74, p.126440, Article 126440
• Main Authors: Kempf, Marta, Hebda, Anna, Bodziarczyk, Jan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1617-1381; 1618-1093
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jnc.2023.126440

•The Gorce Mountains reserve’s larch population’s genetic uniqueness was proved.•No contamination by alien species of Japanese larch and Euro-Japanese larch was found.•The larches from the Gorce and Tatra Mountains have significant genetic differences.•The reserve is a potential source of forest reproductive material. Conservation of valuable populations must be based on a thorough understanding of their genetic variation, especially for species negatively affected by human activities. We investigated the population of larch from the nature reserve in the Gorce Mountains, which was established to preserve a unique stand of Larix decidua subsp. polonica, a remnant of one of the largest native complexes of this species. The chloroplast marker ll-TaqI was used to investigate whether the gene pool of the analysed population was contaminated with the alien larch species. We used eleven nuclear DNA microsatellite markers (nSSRs) to examine this population’s genetic diversity and verify the hypothesis about historical use of the larch from the reserve as a source of reproductive material for the Tatra Mountains. The link between the reserve population and the European larch’s ancestral groups was also verified. No contamination of the studied pool of individuals by alien species was found. The study showed high genetic variability in larch from the Gorce Mountains (HE = 0.689, HO = 0.671). The differentiation between the Gorce and Tatra National Park populations was FST = 0.038 (p