Biodiversity of English yew_Amalesh

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16/04/2010 1 Biodiversity of English yew (Taxus baccata L) populations in Austria PhD thesis presentation byAmalesh DHAR

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16/04/2010 2 Contents Background of Yew populations Objectives Methodology Major Findings Conclusions Recommendations for monitoring and conservation management Acknowledgements

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16/04/2010 3 Adapted from Salwasser (1991)

World Distribution of Taxaceae : 

16/04/2010 4 World Distribution of Taxaceae The circumpolar distribution of Taxus baccata and other Taxus species from Hultén & Fries (1986). + indicates interglacial records; indicates isolated occurrences; hatched areas indicate regions of common or fairly common occurrence. Broken lines outline the distribution of Taxus species other than T. baccata. Thomas P.A., Polwart A. 2003. Taxus baccata L. biological flora of the British Isles 229. Journal Ecology 91: 489–524

Causes of yew declination in Austria : 

16/04/2010 5 16/04/2010 5 Causes of yew declination in Austria

Research Objectives : 

16/04/2010 6 Research Objectives 3. To estimate the level of genetic variation and diversity of Austrian yew populations at different geographic locations 1. To characterize the current ecological condition, population structure and regeneration of English yew in Austria 4. To propose possible conservation and management strategies by using the Population Viability Risk Management (PVRM) framework 2. To compare the structural diversity of English yew populations for assessing the effects of inter-specific and intra-specific competition in relation to the viability of yew

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16/04/2010 7 Materials and Methods

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16/04/2010 8 Study populations in Austria

Materials and Methods – PVRM : 

16/04/2010 9 Materials and Methods – PVRM Guideline for Population Viability Risk Management (PVRM) [Adapted from Marcot and Murphy, 1996] Identifying the species at risk and relevant regulations

Materials and Methods: Ecological parameters : 

16/04/2010 10 Materials and Methods: Ecological parameters Data investigation all yew individuals DBH ≥ 5 cm Tree height , Diameter at Breast Height (DBH), Crown length, Growth form, Crown foliage percentages, Vitality class, Height class, Damage Experimental design Plots on regular grid: 30 X 30 m for Stiwoll and Mondsee and 50 X 50 m for Bad Beliberg Total no of plot: 48, 22 and 72

Materials and Methods – Structural Indices : 

16/04/2010 11 Materials and Methods – Structural Indices Quantifying the Structural Diversity Three neighbouring trees of each individual male and female yew at each sample plot has been used to calculate following structural indices (Füldner1995)

Materials and Method- Genetics : 

16/04/2010 12 Materials and Method- Genetics Sample: Apical meristeme tissue (trees buds) Sample size: 624 (ranges from 40 – 122 per population) Genetic marker: Isozyme Enzyme system: 6 Laboratory procedure according to: Hertel (1996) and Konnert (2004) Data evaluation: GSED (Gillet 1998) and FSTAT (Goudet 2001) Following genetic parameters were assessed Polymorphic Loci (95%):(0.95 criterion: a locus is considered polymorphic if the frequency of the most common allele does not exceed 0.95, P>95 %) A/L - average number of alleles per locus He - average expected heterozygosity= the estimated fraction of all individuals who would be heterozygous for any randomly chosen locus Ho- observed heterozygosity = No.of Heterozygotes at a locus / total no of investigated individuals hypothetical gametic diversity: the potential of a population for producing genetically diverse gametes [Dhar and Klumpp 2008]

Materials and Methods - Genetics : 

16/04/2010 13 Materials and Methods - Genetics Photographs of gel electrophoresis

Materials and Methods – PVRM : 

16/04/2010 14 Materials and Methods – PVRM Guideline for Population Viability Risk Management (PVRM) [Adapted from Marcot and Murphy, 1996] Identifying the species at risk and relevant regulations

Materials and Methods – PVRM, Development of Management Strategies : 

16/04/2010 15 Materials and Methods – PVRM, Development of Management Strategies Dhar et al. 2008

Materials and Methods – PVRM, Development of Management Strategies : 

16/04/2010 16 Materials and Methods – PVRM, Development of Management Strategies Dhar et al. 2008

Materials and Methods – PVRM : 

16/04/2010 17 Materials and Methods – PVRM Guideline for Population Viability Risk Management (PVRM) [Adapted from Marcot and Murphy, 1996] Identifying the species at risk and relevant regulations

Materials and Methods – Analytical hierarchy : 

16/04/2010 18 Materials and Methods – Analytical hierarchy Evaluation Hierarchy for viability of assesment of management strategies Dhar et al. 2006

Materials and Methods – PVRM : 

16/04/2010 19 Materials and Methods – PVRM Guideline for Population Viability Risk Management (PVRM) [Adapted from Marcot and Murphy, 1996] Identifying the species at risk and relevant regulations

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16/04/2010 20 Major findings

English yew populations Structure in Austria : 

16/04/2010 21 English yew populations Structure in Austria

Structural diversity of English yew populations in Austria : 

16/04/2010 22 Structural diversity of English yew populations in Austria Relation between the vitality class, tree-tree distance, and negative height differentiation for each yew from the structural group of four -1,00 -0,90 -0,80 -0,70 -0,60 -0,50 -0,40 -0,30 -0,20 -0,10 0,00 0,00 1,00 2,00 3,00 4,00 5,00 6,00 7,00 distance [m] Height differentiation

Genetic consequence of English yew populations in Austria : 

16/04/2010 23 Genetic consequence of English yew populations in Austria Genetic variations of 7 yew populations in Austria [Dhar and Klumpp 2008]

Genetic consequence of English yew populations in Austria : 

16/04/2010 24 Genetic consequence of English yew populations in Austria -- [Dhar and Klumpp 2008]

Findings – PVRM : 

16/04/2010 25 Findings – PVRM Dhar et al. 2008

Findings : PVRM : 

16/04/2010 26 Findings : PVRM Overall priorities of management strategies for different scenarios Dhar et al. 2008

Conclusions of the results : 

16/04/2010 27 Conclusions of the results For regeneration Despite of adequate number of seedlings, yew showed shortcoming of certain height class this might be occurred due to the impact of browsing and competition for light For pole stand Most of the individual yews in Stiwoll (79%) and Mondsee (63%) are very vital to vital whereas in Bad Bleiberg it was less than 50% The vitality of each individual yew is directly influenced by the inter-specific competition of their neighbouring tree species Vitality is increasing with the increase of the tree-tree distance and the decrease of negative tree height differentiation Genetic structure of pole stand English yew populations in Austria showed a high level of genetic variation with a medium level of inbreeding effect. Selected management strategy Management strategy IV is combination of selective thinning, protection measures, game control with public relation activities is the most effective management alternatives

Recommendations for monitoring and conservation management activities : 

16/04/2010 28 Recommendations for monitoring and conservation management activities Planning and management activities a multi level approach is required active participation of multi institutional involvement is needed public awareness programmes are needed continuous selective thinning is recommended sound and professional harvesting operations are recommended Monitoring activities establishment of a fence is needed to observe the impacts of browsing on the regeneration. reproduction rate and sex ratio of the mature yew individuals has to be monitored more attention is needed for the role of birds and mammals the regeneration status and the survival rate of yew individuals needs to be evaluated in 5-10 years cycles Further research activities further investigations are needed in other gene conservation forests investigation concerning optimum requirement of solar radiation for seedling establishment is needed the Soil water relation should be checked. further investigations regarding the genetic structure are needed and more attention should be given on the number of samples as well as the sampling design further investigations considering impacts of climate change on yew populations is needed

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16/04/2010 29 Acknowledgements For financial support ÖAD for North South Dialogue Scholarship, Landesregierung Steiermark, ÖOG for One world Scholarship I gratefully express my deepest sense of respect to my supervisor ao. Univ. Prof. Dr.Harald Vacik for giving me an opportunity to do my PhD studies in BOKU, as well as Ass. Prof. Dr. Raphael Klumpp for genetic studies. I would like to thank Univ.Prof. Dr. Holzner Wolfgang for examine my thesis. I am also giving thanks to Univ. Prof. Dr. Hubert Hasenauer, Head of Institute, and ao. Univ. Prof. Dr. Manfred Lexer, DI. Herwig Ruprecht, Ing. Monika Lex, and all Institute members for their support during my study period

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16/04/2010 30 Amalesh DHARInstitut of Silviculture Department for Forest-and Soil Sciences University of Natural Resources ans Applied Life Sciences Peter Jordan-Str. 82, A-1190 Wien Tel.: +43 1 47654-4075, Fax: +43 1 47654-4092 Email: amalesh.dhar@boku.ac.at ,Web: www.boku.ac.at Thanks for kind attention

Publications and conference presentations : 

16/04/2010 31 Publications and conference presentations Dhar A. Ruprecht H., Vacik H. 2008. Population Viability Risk Management (PVRM) for in-situ management of endangered tree species – a case study on a Taxus baccata L. population. Forest Ecology and Management, 255 (7) 2835-2845. Dhar A., Ruprecht H., Klumpp R., Vacik H. 2007. Comparison of ecological condition and conservation status of English yew population in two Austrian gene conservation forests. Journal of Forestry Research 18 (3) 181-186 Dhar A., Ruprecht H., Klumpp R., Vacik H. 2006. Stand structure and natural regeneration of English yew (Taxus baccata L.) at Stiwollgraben in Austria. Dendrobiology, 56: 19 – 26 Ruprecht H.,Dhar A.,Aigner B., Oitzinger G.,Klumpp R., Vacik H (2008) Structural diversity of English yew (Taxus baccata L.) populations. European Journal of Forest research (Revised version submitted) Dhar A., Klumpp R (2008) Genetic variation of English yew (Taxus baccata L.) in the eastern Alps and their implications for conservation management. Ecological Research (under review) Dhar A., Ruprecht H., Klumpp R., Vacik H. 2008. The Population Genetic Consequences for Conservation of an Endangered Taxus baccata L. population in Austria In: IUFRO Conference on Biodiversity in Forest Ecosystems and Landscapes from August 5-8, 2008 at Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada, p 41. Klumpp R., Dhar A., Aigner B., Ruprecht H., Vacik H. 2008. Genetics and Population structure on an English yew gene conservation forest at foothills of the Eastern Alpine Mountains In: From the Mountain to Sea, Electronic PDF Abstracts, 22nd Annual meeting, Society for Conservation Biology from 13th to 17th July 2008, The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, USA. Dhar A., Ruprecht H., Klumpp R., Vacik H. 2008. On the structures and genetics of an Austrian relict population of English yew (Taxus baccata L.). In: University of Cambridge (Eds.), Student Conference for Conservation Science, 9th Student Conference for Conservation Science, 25-27 March 2008, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. p 30. Klumpp R. and Dhar, A. 2007. On the genetic variation of English yew (Taxus baccata L.) throughout the Eastern Alps (Untersuchungen zur genetischen Variation der Eibe (Taxus baccata L.) im Ostalpenraum). Vortrag bei der 27. Tagung der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Forstgenetik und Forstpflanzenzüchtung, 10–13 October 2007. In: Anonymus 2007: “Forstgenetik -eine ökologische und ökonomische Zukunft gestalten.“ Tagungsband, BFW, Vienna, Österreich, p 3. Dhar A., Ruprecht H., Klumpp R., Vacik H. 2007. Ecological condition and conservation status of Taxus baccata L. in an Austrian gene conservation forest. In: Society for Conservation Biology [Eds.], One World, One Conservation One Partnership, Electronic PDF Abstracts, 21st Annual meeting Society for Conservation Biology, 01-05 July 2007, Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Dhar A., Ruprecht H., Klumpp R., Vacik H. 2007. Population structure, vitality and genetics of Taxus baccata L. at "Stiwoll" valley in Austria. In: Organization Committee of Ecosysummit 2007 (Eds.), Ecological Complexity and Sustainability – Book of Abstracts, p 64, EcoSummit 2007 - Ecological Complexity and Sustainability: Challenges and Opportunities for 21st-Century's Ecology, 22-27 May 2007, Beijing, China. Ruprecht H., Dhar A., Klumpp R., Vacik H. 2007. Comparison of structural diversity of English yew (Taxus baccata L.) populations. In: Organization Committee of Ecosysummit 2007 (Eds.), Ecological Complexity and Sustainability - Book of Abstracts, p 273, EcoSummit 2007 - Ecological Complexity and Sustainability: Challenges and Opportunities for 21st-Century's Ecology, 22-27 May 2007, Beijing, China. Dhar A., Ruprecht, H., Vacik, H. 2006. Population viability risk management (PVRM) for in-situ management of a Taxus baccata L. population in Austria. In: Society for Conservation Biology-European Section [Eds.] Diversity for Europe, 1st European Congress of Conservation Biology 22-26 August 2006, Eger, Hungary. p. 106.