Climate change aspects in forest genetic resources conservation in Serbia

Abstract

Serbia’s current adaptive capacity to climate change is fairly modest. However, with the beginning of the process of Serbia’s accession to the European Union, the capacities for strategic consideration of climate change issues began to strengthen. Activities are focused primarily on the processes necessary to reduce the causes of climate change (mitigation), and the consideration of adaptation is still neglected. Forest ecosystems play an important role in the global carbon cycle since they have a large potential for carbon sequestration within forest biomass and forest soils. However, conservation of forest genetic resources has not been recognized as a separate significant mechanism for adaptation to climate change within the national policy framework. Conservationists will face numerous challenges in their attempts to adapt conservation activities to climate change trends. According to the estimated speed of climate change, spontaneous natural selection will play a less important role than phenotypic plasticity. Plasticity will be the most desirable feature in the conservation of natural populations and artificial regeneration. An interesting example of the “carryover effect” from the territory of Serbia is the hypothesis of the phenotype groups formation of Serbian spruce and the high degree of intraspecific variability of this relict and endemic species. National conservation priorities, based on elaborated challenges and adaptive mechanisms of trees, are defined and elaborated through concrete measures and activities.