Population Genetics of Forest Trees : Proceedings of the International Symposium on Population Genetics of Forest Trees, Corvallis, Oregon, U.S.A., July 31-August 2, 1990. This item is unavailable.Population Genetics of Forest Trees : Proceedings of the International Symposium on Population Genetics of Forest Trees, Corvallis, Oregon, U.S.A., July 31-August 2, 1990

Tropical climates, which occur between 23°30'N and S latitude (Jacob 1988), encompass a wide variety of plant communities (Hartshorn 1983, 1988), many of which are diverse in their woody floras. Within this geographic region, temperature and the amount and seasonality of rainfall define habitat types (UNESCO 1978). The F AO has estimated that there 1 are about 19 million km of potentially forested area in the global tropics, of which 58% were estimated to still be in closed forest in the mid-1970s (Sommers 1976; UNESCO 1978). Of this potentially forested region, 42% is categorized as dry forest lifezone, 33% is tropical moist forest, and 25% is wet or rain forest (Lugo 1988). The species diversity of these tropical habitats is very high. Raven (1976, in Mooney 1988) estimated that 65% of the 250,000 or more plant species of the earth are found in tropical regions. Of this floristic assemblage, a large fraction are woody species. In the well-collected tropical moist forest of Barro Colorado Island, Panama, 39. 7% (481 of 1212 species) of the native phanerogams are woody, arborescent species (Croat 1978). Another 21. 9% are woody vines and lianas. Southeast Asian Dipterocarp forests may contain 120-200 species of trees per hectare (Whitmore 1984), and recent surveys in upper Amazonia re­ corded from 89 to 283 woody species ~ 10 cm dbh per hectare (Gentry 1988). Tropical communities thus represent a global woody flora of significant scope.

This volume contains 19 invited papers from the International Symposium on Population Genetics of Forest Trees which was held in Corvallis, Oregon, USA, July 31-August 2, 1990. The papers summarize and review the contributions of biochemical genetic markers to the understanding of population genetic structure and evolutionary biology of forest trees, and identify promising areas for future research. Applications of biochemical genetic markers in forestry practice - including breeding zone designation - seed orchard management, and monitoring of genetic resources are also addressed. In addition, the potential of DNA as a biochemical marker is discussed. This overview of the field of population genetics of forest trees will be of great interest to researchers in forest biology as well as forestry practitioners.