Species diversity and genetic diversity - Is there any relationship?

It is attempted in this pilot study to establish possible relationships between the values of genetic diversity and species diversity for Norway spruce-beech forest communities. The object of this study comprises several natural regeneration areas in a nature forest reserve composed of different proportions of these two forest tree species (Tab. 1). Genetic diversity based on allele frequencies was determined at 14 and 9 polymorphic isozyme loci (Tab. 2) for spruce and beech, respectively while species diversity was calculated on the basis of their proportions in the plots under study. The resulting data revealed that the degree of genetic diversity remains nearly constant for spruce as well as for beech independent of the level of species diversity (Fig. 1 and 2). These results show that provided the seed populations posses sufficient genetic diversity, the natural regeneration in such forest tree communities is able to maintain this genetic diversity although there may be strong competition between spruce and beech in a limited area. Therefore it is concluded that the adaptability of both single species in a forest tree community is not diminished thus preserving the stability of the respective spruce beech ecosystems.