The preparation of the next planting seasons for MigFoRest is well under way. Back in March, we told you in this article about the receipt of the first "assisted migration seeds". Well, now they are luckily nicely growing up in our partners' nurseries.
Below you see the silver fir (Abies alba) seedlings growing in the FVA nursery in Freiburg. They originate from Romania, Italy and Switzerland. These silver firs will be planted mostly in one of the two German MigFoRest pilot territories, that is the Schwabian- Franconian forest, but also to a less extend in the French pilot territory of La Petite Charnie, managed by MigForest partner NeoSylva.
The pictures below show the DNA extraction that is being done on those seedlings. This operation enables the project team to evaluate genetic diversity of introduced provenances in the pilot territories. The project's objective is indeed to introduce seedlings from selected provenances in order to increase the genetic diversity of tree populations in North-West Europe. Since high genetic diversity is essential for forests to adapt to climate change, MigFoRest wants to confirm with molecular genetic analasys, using microsatelite analyses, that introduced provenances are indeed increasing genetic diversity.
The FVA nursery is not only preparing seedlings for plantings in the coming months in the pilot territories. It is also growing pubescent oak (Quercus pubescens) seedlings, originating from Italy, that will be used as root stock for grafting and for establishing a seed orchard in Germany. Thinking even more long-term.
The future of assisted migration starts here.
