Genetic Conservation of Table Mountain Pine in the Southern Appalachian Mountains

CONTACT INFORMATION

INTRODUCTION

Table Mountain Pine surrounded by Virginia Pine at Hanging Rock State Park, North Carolina.

In 2009, Camcore begins work on the conservation of Table Mountain Pine (TMP, Pinus pungens).  The species is native to the southern half of the Appalachian Mountains, typically found growing on xeric, south facing ridges between 300 and 1200 m elevation.  There are also a number of outlying populations associated with isolated mountain ranges of the Piedmont.  This work is funded by a 3-year, $48,563 Joint Venture Agreement between the USDA Forest Service Southern Region National Forest System and Camcore, NC State. USFS Regional Geneticist Barbara Crane is our primary Forest Service contact in this collaborative project.

 

Why Conserve Table Mountain Pine?
Although TMP has at times had commercial importance as a source of pulpwood, low-grade sawtimber, and firewood, it is most valuable for the ecosystem services it provides.  The serotinous seed cones are a year-round source of food for wildlife, and the trees help to stabilize soils along ridgelines, minimizing erosion and runoff.  In the Southern Appalachian Mountains TMP populations are declining due to wild-fire suppression programs and periodic outbreaks of the Southern Pine Beetle, Dendroctonus frontalis.  As of 1998, U.S. Forest Service inventory data indicated less than 12,000 hectares of the Table Mountain Pine–Pitch Pine forest type surviving in the region.  TMP is a fire-adapted species, and historically successful regeneration on a site has been dependent on lightning and wildfires caused by humans that eliminate hardwood competition, release advanced TMP regeneration, and stimulate seed release from the serotinous cones of mature trees.  Since the late 1930s, an emphasis on fire suppression in the Southern Appalachians has prevented these processes from occurring and allowed succession on these sites to move toward permanent dominance of oaks and other hardwoods.  There has been much research on the use of prescribed fire to regenerate declining TMP populations.  Although sometimes successful, prescribed fires have been documented to further encourage stand succession to hardwood dominance, and it remains unclear what intensities and frequencies of artificial fire are best for TMP regeneration.

Figure 1: Table Mountain Pine Range

What are Camcore and the USFS Doing to Conserve Table Mountain Pine?
In the absence of consistently reliable methods for regenerating declining stands, an effort is needed to conserve those TMP genetic resources that remain before additional populations are lost.  Camcore and the U.S. Forest Service are currently in the planning stages to do this for surviving TMP populations located on national forest lands in Georgia, Maryland, North and South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.   We will utilize an ex situ germplasm conservation approach similar to what Camcore has used to conserve numerous threatened pine species and populations native to Central America and Mexico since 1980 and declining populations of Eastern and Carolina hemlock in the southeastern U.S. since 2003.  The primary goals and supporting objectives of this project are as follows:   
 

Highly Serotinous Table Mountain Pine Cone

Primary Project Goals:

1. To conduct explorations of new and known populations of TMP for seed (germplasm) collections on National Forest lands in the Southern Appalachian Mountains for the purpose of gene conservation.  A portion of the collected seeds will be germinated and established in seedling seed orchards/conservation banks at the USDA FS Beech Creek seed orchard (Murphy, NC) and, perhaps, other locations in the region.  The remaining seeds will be divided and placed in long-term cold storage in the Camcore Seed Bank (Raleigh, NC), at the USDA FS Region 8 Ashe Nursery Facility (Mississippi), the USDA FS National Tree Seed Lab (Dry Branch, GA), and the USDA ARS National Germplasm Repository (Fort Collins, CO).

1. To develop an up-to-date range map of surviving TMP populations in the Southern Appalachian Mountains and amend inventory data to reflect the current amount of this forest type remaining in the region. 

Supporting Objectives: 
The following supporting objectives are critical to the success of goal #1 above.  The research projects listed here will fill critical knowledge gaps for TMP related to seed technology, greenhouse, nursery, and silvicultural protocols for seed orchard establishment, and genetic diversity studies that will guide seed collection efforts.

1. Evaluate optimal conditions for cold storage of TMP seeds for maintenance of viability in the long-term.
2. Evaluate pre-germination and stratification treatments that offer high rates of uniform germination of TMP seeds.
3. Evaluate greenhouse and nursery protocols that are best suited for producing healthy TMP seedlings that will perform well when out-planted into a seed orchard environment.
4. Evaluate the growth and flowering response of TMP to the seed orchard environment and compare the performance of different TMP seed sources. 
5. Evaluate variation in germination among TMP seeds from annually opening versus serotinous cones.
6. Evaluate the effective population size represented by TMP seeds from annually opening versus serotinous cones and assess which best represents the natural populations we are attempting to conserve.  Isozyme analysis will be used to determine the number of male pollinators that have contibuted genes to the progeny of selected mother trees in natural stands.
7. Develop a reasonable evolutionary scenario to explain the current trends in genetic diversity and population structure of TMP described by Gibson and Hamrick (1991).  This will be studied using either chemical or molecular marker systems.
8. Utilize FloraMap™ or other climate modeling software to determine the most suitable areas for the establishment of conservation seed orchards and predict how climate change might impact the natural distribution of TMP in the future.
9. Conduct a number of biological and chemical assays to determine the level of susceptibility of TMP populations to infestation by the Southern Pine Beetle and compare the results to similar trends that have been previously evaluated for other pine species native to the southeastern US.  These experiments will utilize methodology developed at the SRS SPB Laboratory in Pineville, LA. 

Table Mountain Pine Conservation Contacts    

If you would like more information about Camcore’s Table Mountain Pine gene conservation program or would like to contribute to our effort please feel free to contact one of the following individuals:

Robert Jetton, Research Assistant Professor and Project Leader

Phone: 919.515.6425
Email: robert_jetton@ncsu.edu

Andrew Whittier, Research Forester

Phone: 919.513.4878
Email: wawhitti@ncsu.edu

Bill Dvorak, Camcore Director and Professor

Phone: 919.515.6424
Email: bill_dvorak@ncsu.edu