Forest decline has not reduced genetic diversity of naturally regenerated Norway spruce from the Beskids, Poland

Norway spruce forests decline in the Beskids raises concerns about reduction of genetic variation in a next generation of forest. We aim to determine whether the genetic diversity in declining spruce stands was successfully transmitted to its self-seeded progeny. Using three nuclear microsatellite markers, we carried out the genetic assessment of naturally regenerated progeny and compered them with their maternal stands at an initial stage of decline. We investigated three spruce stands from the Śląski and Żywiecki Beskid and one primeval forest from the Tatras, as a reference. We noticed a high level of gene diversity, allelic richness and an effective number of alleles in progeny of all stands, without differences between declining stands from the Beskids and the primeval forest. The gene diversity was similar in maternal trees and their offspring. Higher gene diversity and generally higher number of alleles were noticed in young generation of stands. Genetic identity between generations was high in analyzed seed stands and the highest in the primeval forest. The results we presented indicate no significant effect of drastic reduction in the population size due to the forest decline on the level of genetic variation in self-seeded progeny of Norway spruce from the Beskids.