Detecting local establishment strategies of wild cherry (Prunus avium L.)

Backround  

P. avium, a pioneer tree species that colonizes early forest successional stages, is assumed to require an effective strategy allowing stably repeatable rounds of local establishment, dispersal and local extinction. Consequently, the early replacement of cherry by climax tree species makes the establishment of several local generations very unlikely, especially in central European continuous cover forests. This has to be seen in connection with the mixed reproduction system involving asexual reproduction as a complementary adaptational strategy. Tests of the local establishment of wild cherry must therefore consider the possibility of first generation establishment via seedling recruitment potentially followed by an asexual generation (root suckering). Successful establishment can therefore be determined only among adult individuals with the option of detecting vegetative reproduction at these stages. To test the implied suggestion about local establishment strategies of wild cherry, nuclear microsatellites were used to analyse patterns of asexual propagation among adult stages that have been subjected to one of two major types of forest management. These management types, the historical "coppice with standards system" (CWS) and the "high forest system" (HFS), can be reasonably assumed to have affected the reproduction system of P. avium.