FP6 priority

1.1.6   Sustainable Development, Global Change and Ecosystems

1.6.3

Title of the proposal

Conservation of gene-pool of valued introduced woody plant species in Slovakia for their increasing stability, production and sustainable use

Institute

Slovak Academy of Sciences, Institute of Forest Ecology, Branch of Woody Plant Biology,
Akademicka 2, 94901 Nitra, Slovak Republic

Contact

Research subject for a potential FP6 project

As long as several decades, research team of IFE, Branch of Woody Plant Species has been carried out an extensive study on growth and production characteristics as well as on variation of morphological, phenological and genetic traits in some introduced woody plant species (Castanea sativa, Juglans nigra, Quercus rubra). A special attention in this study has been given to Castanea sativa, European chestnut. For the last six years research team participated in COST action G4 “Multidisciplinary chestnut research” and in INCO-COPERNICUS programme with the project: “Integrated study of factors involved in degraded chestnut forest in Central and Mediterranean Europe. Biological criteria for a susutainable development”. Within the proposed topic for 6FP we would like continue in our long-term study and to extend it by the study on conservation and multipurpose use of valued introduced woody plant species. These species, especially Juglans nigra and Quercus rubra, have proved well in establishing forest stands in lowlands of South Slovakia, where due to the changed ecological conditions, native, productive forest stands have declined. Existing collections of provenances, progenies and clones of European chestnut and partially also black walnut genetic resources in Slovakia represent a very valuable and suitable study material for studying genetic variability of the respective species with special emphasise on adaptive and production traits. International collaboration in this field will facilitate to elaborate a long-term conservation and utilisation strategies not only for introduced woody plant species but also for the species belonging to Noble Hardwoods.

Recent international cooperation of the research team

Istituto Sperimentale per la Selvicoltura, Arezzo, Italy; Istituto per l‘Agroselvicoltura del CNR, Porano, Italy; Slovenian Forestry Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia; University of Ljubljana Agronomy Department, Ljubljana, Slovenia; Ukrainian State Technical Forestry University in Lvov, Forestry faculty, Ukraine

Proposer´s relevant publications related to the research subject

TOKAR, F., 1997: Aboveground dendromass formation in relation to the leaf area index of mixed forest stands of Spanish chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.). Ecology (Bratislava), 16, 1997, p.23-31
TOKAR, F., 1998: Phytotechnique and dendromass production in selected exotic species satnds in Slovakia (in Slovak). Acta dendrobiologica, VEDA -publishing house of SAS, Bratislava, 157pp.
BOLVANSKY, M. - MENDEL, L., 1999: Results of the first controlled crosses in European chestnut in the Slovak Republic. In: Proc. 2^nd Int. Symp. On Chestnut, Ed. G. Salesses, Acta Horticulturae, 494, ISHS, p. 309-316.