Leaflet morphometric variation of service tree (Sorbus domesticaL.) in the Balkan Peninsula

Abstract

In most European countries, the service tree (Sorbus domestica L.) is a rare and threatened species and its conservation has been recognised as a priority. The aim of this study was to asses its morphologic variation in the western and central part of the Balkan Peninsula and in southern Central Europe. Three populations were analysed: one in Serbia, one in Bosnia and Herzegovina and one in Slovenia. In each population 30 trees were selected, and from each tree 30 leaves were collected for morphometric analysis based on nine leaflet morphological traits. Univariate (ANOVA) and multivariate (MANOVA) analysis of variance were used to estimate the variation within-and between populations and a discriminant analysis was performed to examine the structure of the between-population differences. The values of particular morphological traits found in our study did not differ considerably from the values reported elsewhere. The results revealed significant within-and between population variation. Variation within populations was highly significant for all the scored leaf morphological traits, while variation between populations was significant for all the studied traits except for the leaflet length. The discrimination between the three populations was significant. High percentages of correctly classified samples demonstrate good discriminating employability of the analysed leaf morphological traits and indicate differentiation of the analysed populations.

Morphological variability of leaves of Sorbus domestica L. in Croatia

“…Based on the Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA, statistically significant differences were confirmed for all studied variables on the intra-and inter-population level. Similar results were obtained by [25] for three populations of the service tree on the Balkan Peninsula. As the service tree is a rare species with a small population density and a high degree of fragmentation and isolation, and in line with population genetics theories, a decreased genetic diversity and high degree of differentiation are to be expected [18].…”

“…The significant variability of morphological characteristics of the service tree leaves in three populations on the Balkan Peninsula was also found by [25], although the variation trend in this study is somewhat greater, which could be explained by greater heterogeneity of the habitats in which the populations were sampled. In addition, the said study included a considerably smaller number of studied variables, hence the results are not entirely comparable.…”

“…In addition to genetic markers, morphological traits were also used. Although in comparison with molecular markers their significance has recently been on the decrease, morphological traits are still frequently applied [25,[31][32][33]. This is supported by an increasing amount of research combining methods of morphometric and molecular analysis [34][35][36].…”

“…Its conservation through both in situ and ex situ methods has therefore been recognized as a priority [10,17,18,25], and one of the key issues for conservation of genetic resources is to gain better knowledge of its genetic variability [24]. However, there is very little insight into the genetic variability of the service tree populations, and the research to date only included a smaller number of populations [12,[26][27][28][29][30].…”

Long-term storage of service tree (Sorbus domestica L.) seeds and induction of their germination

“…But it also has the wood of high quality, the hardest of any European wood, and may be an element of open forests, so there is also an interest in it from a forestry perspective. For these reasons, it has also attracted considerable attention (Hrdoušek et al 2014;Kopecký 2014), and has become the subject of conservation programs and multidisciplinary research (Arrillaga et al 1991;Arrillaga et al 1995;Mikic et al 2008;Paganová 2008a,b;Ďurkovič, Mišalová 2009;Kamm et al 2009;Brus et al 2011;Miletić, Paunović 2012;Piagnani et al 2012). …”