To learn more about the map elements, please download the "Pan-European strategy for genetic conservation of forest trees"
This distribution map has been developed by the European Commission Joint Research Centre (partly based on the EUFORGEN map) and released under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY 4.0)
Caudullo, G., Welk, E., San-Miguel-Ayanz, J., 2017. Chorological maps for the main European woody species. Data in Brief 12, 662-666. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2017.05.007
The following experts have contributed to the development of the EUFORGEN distribution maps:
Fazia Krouchi (Algeria), Hasmik Ghalachyan (Armenia), Thomas Geburek (Austria), Berthold Heinze (Austria), Rudi Litschauer (Austria), Rudolf Litschauer (Austria), Michael Mengl (Austria), Ferdinand Müller (Austria), Franz Starlinger (Austria), Valida Ali-zade (Azerbaijan), Vahid Djalal Hajiyev (Azerbaijan), Karen Cox (Belgium), Bart De Cuyper (Belgium), Olivier Desteucq (Belgium), Patrick Mertens (Belgium), Jos Van Slycken (Belgium), An Vanden Broeck (Belgium), Kristine Vander Mijnsbrugge (Belgium), Dalibor Ballian (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Alexander H. Alexandrov (Bulgaria), Alexander Delkov (Bulgaria), Ivanova Denitsa Pandeva (Bulgaria), Peter Zhelev Stoyanov (Bulgaria), Joso Gracan (Croatia), Marilena Idzojtic (Croatia), Mladen Ivankovic (Croatia), Željka Ivanović (Croatia), Davorin Kajba (Croatia), Hrvoje Marjanovic (Croatia), Sanja Peric (Croatia), Andreas Christou (Cyprus), Xenophon Hadjikyriacou (Cyprus), Václav Buriánek (Czech Republic), Jan Chládek (Czech Republic), Josef Frýdl (Czech Republic), Petr Novotný (Czech Republic), Martin Slovacek (Czech Republic), Zdenek Špišek (Czech Republic), Karel Vancura (Czech Republic), Ulrik Bräuner (Denmark), Bjerne Ditlevsen (Denmark), Jon Kehlet Hansen (Denmark), Jan Svejgaard Jensen (Denmark), Kalev Jðgiste (Estonia), Tiit Maaten (Estonia), Raul Pihu (Estonia), Ülo Tamm (Estonia), Arvo Tullus (Estonia), Aivo Vares (Estonia), Teijo Nikkanen (Finland), Sanna Paanukoski (Finland), Mari Rusanen (Finland), Pekka Vakkari (Finland), Leena Yrjänä (Finland), Daniel Cambon (France), Eric Collin (France), Alexis Ducousso (France), Bruno Fady (France), François Lefèvre (France), Brigitte Musch (France), Sylvie Oddou-Muratorio (France), Luc E. Pâques (France), Julien Saudubray (France), Marc Villar (France), Vlatko Andonovski (FYR Macedonia), Dragi Pop-Stojanov (FYR Macedonia), Merab Machavariani (Georgia), Irina Tvauri (Georgia), Alexander Urushadze (Georgia), Bernd Degen (Germany), Jochen Kleinschmit (Germany), Armin König (Germany), Armin König (Germany), Volker Schneck (Germany), Richard Stephan (Germany), H. H. Kausch-Blecken Von Schmeling (Germany), Georg von Wühlisch (Germany), Iris Wagner (Germany), Heino Wolf (Germany), Paraskevi Alizoti (Greece), Filippos Aravanopoulos (Greece), Andreas Drouzas (Greece), Despina Paitaridou (Greece), Aristotelis C. Papageorgiou (Greece), Kostas Thanos (Greece), Sándor Bordács (Hungary), Csaba Mátyás (Hungary), László Nagy (Hungary), Thröstur Eysteinsson (Iceland), Adalsteinn Sigurgeirsson (Iceland), Halldór Sverrisson (Iceland), John Fennessy (Ireland), Ellen O'Connor (Ireland), Fulvio Ducci (Italy), Silvia Fineschi (Italy), Bartolomeo Schirone (Italy), Marco Cosimo Simeone (Italy), Giovanni Giuseppe Vendramin (Italy), Lorenzo Vietto (Italy), Janis Birgelis (Latvia), Virgilijus Baliuckas (Lithuania), Kestutis Cesnavicius (Lithuania), Darius Danusevicius (Lithuania), Valmantas Kundrotas (Lithuania), Alfas Pliûra (Lithuania), Darius Raudonius (Lithuania), Robert du Fays (Luxembourg), Myriam Heuertz (Luxembourg), Claude Parini (Luxembourg), Fred Trossen (Luxembourg), Frank Wolter (Luxembourg), Joseph Buhagiar (Malta), Eman Calleja (Malta), Ion Palancean (Moldova), Dragos Postolache (Moldova), Gheorghe Postolache (Moldova), Hassan Sbay (Morocco), Tor Myking (Norway), Tore Skrøppa (Norway), Anna Gugala (Poland), Jan Kowalczyk (Poland), Czeslaw Koziol (Poland), Jan Matras (Poland), Zbigniew Sobierajski (Poland), Maria Helena Almeida (Portugal), Filipe Costa e Silva (Portugal), Luís Reis (Portugal), Maria Carolina Varela (Portugal), Ioan Blada (Romania), Alexandru-Lucian Curtu (Romania), Lucian Dinca (Romania), Georgeta Mihai (Romania), Mihai Olaru (Romania), Gheorghe Parnuta (Romania), Natalia Demidova (Russian Federation), Mikhail V. Pridnya (Russian Federation), Andrey Prokazin (Russian Federation), Srdjan Bojovic (Serbia) , Vasilije Isajev (Serbia), Saša Orlovic (Serbia), Rudolf Bruchánik (Slovakia), Roman Longauer (Slovakia), Ladislav Paule (Slovakia), Gregor Bozič (Slovenia), Robert Brus (Slovenia), Katarina Celič (Slovenia), Hojka Kraigher (Slovenia), Andrej Verlič (Slovenia), Marjana Westergren (Slovenia), Ricardo Alía (Spain), Josefa Fernández-López (Spain), Luis Gil Sanchez (Spain), Pablo Gonzalez Goicoechea (Spain), Santiago C. González-Martínez (Spain), Sonia Martin Albertos (Spain), Eduardo Notivol Paino (Spain), María Arantxa Prada (Spain), Alvaro Soto de Viana (Spain), Lennart Ackzell (Sweden), Jonas Bergquist (Sweden), Sanna Black-Samuelsson (Sweden), Jonas Cedergren (Sweden), Gösta Eriksson (Sweden), Markus Bolliger (Switzerland), Felix Gugerli (Switzerland), Rolf Holderegger (Switzerland), Peter Rotach (Switzerland), Marcus Ulber (Switzerland), Sven M.G. de Vries (The Netherlands), Khouja Mohamed Larbi (Tunisia), Murat Alan (Turkey), Gaye Kandemir (Turkey), Gursel Karagöz (Turkey), Zeki Kaya (Turkey), Hasan Özer (Turkey), Hacer Semerci (Turkey), Ferit Toplu (Turkey), Mykola M. Vedmid (Ukraine), Roman T. Volosyanchuk (Ukraine), Stuart A'Hara (United Kingdom), Joan Cottrell (United Kingdom), Colin Edwards (United Kingdom), Michael Frankis (United Kingdom), Jason Hubert (United Kingdom), Karen Russell (United Kingdom), C.J.A. Samuel (United Kingdom).
Status of Quercus robur conservation in Europe
Pedunculate oak has a high level of genetic diversity and high diversity in phenotypic and adaptive traits, likely due to the maintenance of a large population size across Europe combined with long-distance geneflow, interfertility, and a high level of outcrossing (Ducousso and Bordacs, 2004). However, genetic variation is higher in sessile oak (Quercus petraea) than pedunculate oak in Europe. Populations close to glacial refugia, such as those in Bosnia and Herzegovina, have higher genetic variation than central European populations (Ballian, et al., 2010).
Pedunculate oak shows some weak geographic structuring of genetic diversity, and geographical variation trends for phenological traits, growth, and form attributes (Ducousso and Bordacs, 2004). In Bosnia and Herzegovina, differences between and within populations were attributed to anthropogenic impacts, but also to populations existing in different ecological niches (Ballian, et al., 2010). Large-scale genetic structuring and haplotypic grouping occurred because of postglacial recolonization from different refugia in the south, and high haplotype diversity in central Europe could be a result of merging between different recolonization lineages (Degen et al., 2021).
Typically, acorn dispersal by birds and mammals only occurs up to a few hundred metres and pollen dispersal is often less than 100 m. This means that dispersion has not been extensive enough since recolonization to mix haplotypes from different refugia, which has created a pattern of isolation by distance and significant spatial genetic structure (Degen et al., 2021). Populations show clustering into different gene pools, with lower genetic diversity in northern, eastern, and south-eastern edges of the species’ natural distribution range (Degen et al., 2022).
The bibliographic review was conducted by James Chaplin of the EUFORGEN Secretariat in August 2024.
Taxonomic identification is made difficult in oak species by frequent and easy hybridization among them. This also affects the present genetic and haplotypic distribution of pedunculate oak (Ducousso and Bordacs, 2004; Degen et al., 2021). Interspecific hybridization has been a key migration mechanism for both sessile and pedunculate oak, increasing their genetic diversity and adaptability through introgression allowing interspecific gene flow for adaptive advantages (Ducousso and Bordacs, 2004; Degen et al., 2021). This has also led to a wide range of transitional forms of hybrid genotypes in oak species (Jurkšienė et al., 2020). Increased numbers of hybrid offspring between sessile and pedunculate oak increases heterozygosity, genotypic diversity, and internal population subdivision and differentiation (Jurkšienė et al., 2020).
The present distribution of pedunculate oak haplotypes is best explained by recolonization routes after the last glacial maximum within the last 7 000 years from refugia to their current distribution (Ducousso and Bordacs, 2004). Pedunculate oak survived in glacial refugia in the Iberian Peninsula, Italy, and the Balkans before recolonizing western, central, and northern Europe, respectively (Degen et al., 2021).
The bibliographic review was conducted by James Chaplin of the EUFORGEN Secretariat in August 2024.
Many populations are fragmented and degraded by human activities such as the conversion of forest into farmland over the last 200 years, negatively affecting their genetic structure and diversity (Ballian, et al., 2010). Since the nineteenth century, silvicultural management has increased oak-forest coverage, but most forests are now managed and primeval forests are rare (Ducousso and Bordacs, 2004). Marginal and small populations or those in more extreme habitats could be at risk of disappearing and losing their genetic diversity, and the introduction of exotic genotypes through plantations threatens the genetic diversity of natural populations (Ducousso and Bordacs, 2004). Natural hybridization with the more-broadly distributed sessile oak also threatens the genetic diversity of pedunculate oak (Ballian, et al., 2010).
Programmes of genetic conservation can be developed with a range of objectives, e.g. to sample genetic diversity, conserve evolutionary mechanisms and oak ecosystems, and protect endangered populations (Ducousso and Bordacs, 2004). In situ conservation is preferred, but if natural regeneration is not sufficient then adapted ex situ conservation can be used to protect endangered gene pools (Ducousso and Bordacs, 2004). Use of local material and natural regeneration should be prioritized; reproductive material should only be transferred locally, and agreements between nurseries and forest managers for raising seedlings are also needed (Ducousso and Bordacs, 2004).
The bibliographic review was conducted by James Chaplin of the EUFORGEN Secretariat in August 2024.
Genetic Characterisation of Quercus robur and its GCUs
Availability of FRM
FOREMATIS
Quercus robur and Quercus petraea - Technical guidelines for genetic conservation and use for pedunculate and sessile oaks
Publication Year: 2003The forest reproductive material transfer in international trade must be in agreement with EU Directives and the OECD scheme. All scientific studies are congruent for the promotion of local material. Forest managers are urged to follow these guidelines:
1) Natural regeneration must be a priority.
2) Reproductive material must be transferred only at a local scale; transfers among provenance regions must be strictly limited. Foresters must use genetic resources for artificial regeneration from local seed stands, that have been selected for their phenotypic values and silvicultural histories.
3) Development of seedlingraising agreements between nurseries and forest managers is needed.
At present in Europe, these genetic resources are not really endangered except in some situations (marginal populations in coastal sand dunes or peatbogs; altitudes >1400 m) and at the limits of the natural range. These genetic resources are potentially threatened by introduction of exotic genotypes, species purification, neglected practices and conversion to high forest. For these reasons, we recommend development of programmes of gene conservation with the following objectives:
1) Sampling of genetic diversity: sampling strategies defined empirically or according to results obtained with molecular and quantitative markers.
2) Conservation of evolutionary mechanisms: the high genetic diversity of white oaks is the result of evolutionary mechanisms such as interspecific hybridization.
3) Conservation of oak ecosystems: humans have created ecotypes adapted to different management for wood production and acorn crops. Most of these management systems are neglected because foresters have undertaken conversion to high forest.
4) Conservation of endangered populations and minor species: marginal or endangered populations in Europe need conservation measures. The first step is to take a census, then define a policy for each situation.
In situ conservation methods should be generally preferred. If natural regeneration methods are not sufficient, an adapted and specified ex situ conservation programme including a controlled autochthonous reproductive material system (e.g. clonal seed orchards) should be used as well to preserve the endangered genepool.
Social Broadleaves Network: Report of the first meeting
Mediterranean Oaks Network: Report of the second meeting
Mediterranean Oaks Network: Report of the first meeting
Social Broadleaves Network: Report of the fifth meeting (Temperate Oaks and Beech network)
Social Broadleaves Network: Report of the second meeting
Social Broadleaves Network: Report of the third meeting
Contacts of experts
NA
Further reading
Bacilieri, R., Ducousso, A., and Kremer, A. 1995. Genetic, morphological, ecological and phenological differentiation between Quercus petraea (Matt.) Liebl. and Quercus robur L. in a mixed stand of northwest of France. Silvae Genetica, 44(1): 1–9.
Gömöry, D., Yakovlev, I., Zhelev, P., Jedináková, J., and Paule, L. 2001. Genetic differentiation of oak populations within the Quercus robur/Quercus petraea complex in Central and Eastern Europe. Heredity, 86(5): 557–563.
References
Ballian, D., Belletti, P., Ferrazzini, D., Bogunić, F., and Kajba, D. 2010. Genetic variability of pedunculate oak (Quercus robur L.) in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Periodicum Biologorum, 112(3): 353–362.
Degen, B., Yanbaev, Y., Mader, M., Ianbaev, R., Bakhtina, S., Schroeder, H., and Blanc-Jolivet, C. 2021. Impact of gene flow and introgression on the range wide genetic structure of Quercus robur (L.) in Europe. Forests, 12(10): 1425. https://doi.org/10.3390/f12101425
Degen, B., Yanbaev, Y., Ianbaev, R., Blanc-Jolivet, C., Mader, M., and Bakhtina, S. 2022. Large-scale genetic structure of Quercus robur in its eastern distribution range enables assignment of unknown seed sources. Forestry, 95(4): 531–547.
Ducousso, A. and Bordacs, S. 2004. EUFORGEN Technical Guidelines for genetic conservation and use for pedunculate and sessile oaks (Quercus robur and Q. petraea). Rome, International Plant Genetic Resources Institute. 6 pages.
Jurkšienė, G., Baranov, O.Y., Kagan, D.I., Kovalevič-Razumova, O.A., and Baliuckas, V., 2020. Genetic diversity and differentiation of pedunculate (Quercus robur) and sessile (Q. petraea) oaks. Journal of Forestry Research, 31(6): 2445–2452.
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