Genetic diversity in river populations of European Black Poplar for evaluation of biodiversity, conservation strategies, nature development and genetic improvement

The main objective of this project is to advice managers of the riparian ecosystem how to restore and maintain wild populations of European Black Poplar. After restoration of the borders of the rivers, nature can develop and the biodiversity will be restored. These natural borders will have an important corridor function through which other nature conservation areas are connected.
To accomplish the main objective the followed detailed objectives must be fulfilled:
To develop strategies for the conservation of P. nigra and its restoration to riparian ecosystems based on the measurement of the genetic diversity in wild populations.
To describe the genetic diversity within ex situ collections in order to evaluate the current state of conservation in Europe.
To study key parameters of stand dynamics for in situ management and re-introduction strategies.
To maintain population with a broad genetic diversity to ensure adaptation to changing environmental conditions and breeding programmes are provided with new genotypes.
The genetic diversity will be studied at different levels; morphological characteristics will be compared with isozyme patterns, polymorphisms on the chloroplast DNA and on the genomic DNA.