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Impacts of silviculture on genetic diversity in the native forest species Eucalyptus sieberi

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Abstract

Potential impacts of regeneration practices ongenetic diversity in the Australian nativeforest species Eucalyptus sieberi L.A.S.Johnson. (silvertop ash) were assessed usingDNA markers. Three different silviculturaltreatments were examined: clear-felling withaerial re-sowing, and the seed tree system withsite preparation by either burning ormechanical disturbance. In addition, twounharvested stands were chosen as controls. Atotal sample of 825 trees were genotyped at 35Mendelian markers: 26 single-copy nuclear RFLPsand 9 microsatellites. No significantdifferences were found among the treatments inany of four population genetic statistics:allelic richness, effective number of alleles,expected heterozygosity and the panmictic index(f). Rare alleles were prevalent, and a MonteCarlo simulation showed that the apparent lossof four rare alleles from the saplingregenerants was highly statisticallysignificant. There was no evidence for recentbottlenecks from analyses of either the levelsof expected heterozygosity relative to thatexpected under mutation drift equilibrium, orthe allele frequency profiles. A dendrogram ofthe relationships between the sampledpopulations suggested that the seed tree systemmay result in the promotion of genetic drift(slight expansion of the dendrogram) whileaerial re-sowing of clear falls with the sameseedlot will lead to genetic homogenisation(contraction of the dendrogram). The apparentgenetic robustness of E. sieberi tonative forest regeneration practices isattributed to its local abundance combined withthe favourable properties of its reproductivebiology, as well as to the limitation that onlya single rotation was examined.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CSIRO Forestry & Forest Products, P.O. Box E4008, Kingston ACT, 2604, Australia

    Jeffrey C. Glaubitz, Harry X. Wu & Gavin F. Moran

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  1. Jeffrey C. Glaubitz
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  2. Harry X. Wu
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  3. Gavin F. Moran
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Correspondence to Jeffrey C. Glaubitz.

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Glaubitz, J.C., Wu, H.X. & Moran, G.F. Impacts of silviculture on genetic diversity in the native forest species Eucalyptus sieberi . Conservation Genetics 4, 275–287 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1024025331750

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