Geographical Structuring of Quercus robur (L.) Chloroplast DNA Haplotypes in Lithuania: Recolonization, Adaptation, or Overexploitation Effects?

We studied the maternally inherited chloroplast DNA polymorphism at three microsatellite loci of 157 Quercus robur trees from 38 native populations in Lithuania. found high diversity eight haplotypes Balkan lineage A (frequency 0.75) and “German” subbranch (freq. 0.12), western eastern Italian lineages C 0.05 0.06, respectively), Iberian B 0.03). The were geographically well structured (among population differentiation index PhiPT = 0.30, p-value < 0.001) that is unexpected for such a small territory as raised hypothesis on historical overexploitation oaks by eliminating certain Lithuania, following drastic felling oak forests over last few centuries.