Genetic diversity and mating system of post-fire and post-harvest black spruce: an investigation using codominant sequence-tagged-site (STS) markers

cDNA-based sequence-tagged-site (STS) markers were used to examine the genetic composition of three mature, layer-origin populations of black spruce (Picea mariana (Mill.) BSP), which were the result of logging operations in the first half of the 20th century, and compare them with four mature, seedling-origin populations that regenerated naturally following fire. The amount of STS-marker variation revealed in these populations was very similar to that previously observed in a rangewide panel of black spruce trees. There was little differentiation among populations, and no significant differences in heterozygosities, numbers of alleles, or fixation indices were evident between layer-origin and fire-origin stands. Likewise, when mating-system parameters were estimated in one population of each of these two types, no significant differences were found; outcrossing was essentially complete with no evidence of mating among relatives. The estimated correlation of paternity within progeny arrays was about 17 and 13% in the fire-origin and layer-origin stands, respectively, but again the observed difference was not statistically significant. At least at the current scale of sampling, silvicultural practices that result in stand replacement by layer-origin advance regeneration appear not to have had negative impact upon the genetic diversity or level of inbreeding in second-growth black spruce stands.