BACKGROUND Autochthony in forest tree stands is characterized by a number of criteria, among which the range over which stands act as a population has been suggested to play a central role. Therefore, measures are needed for the delineation of populations or the detection of subpopulation structure. It is argued here that methods of population delineation must be based on the combined consideration of spatial distances and genetic differences between adult individuals. Conventional approaches and a set of newly developed methods are applied to seven isozyme loci in four beech stands which are distinguished by different types of forest management based on natural regeneration. RESULTS Permutation analyses show that correlations between spatial distances and genetic differences vary only little in the studied beech stands. In view of the popularity of this and related descriptors of spatiogenetic covariation, this result came as a surprise. The newly developed methods lead to a different conclusion. Significant spatiogenetic structure is indicated in all stands when considering the mean and variance of spatiogenetic separation, where separation is measured by the smallest spatiogenetic difference of an individual from all others. Spatiogenetic difference is measured here by a combination of the spatial distances and genetic differences between individuals. This descriptor indicates the existence of spatiogenetic clusters in the beech stands. In order to arrive at an explicit representation of cluster structure as a representation of subpopulation structure, two types of cluster structure (primary and alpha-isolated) are distinguished, both of which reflect desirable characteristics of subpopulation structure. Particularly in the alpha-isolated structure, the proportion of individuals organized in clusters, the effective size, and the effective number of clusters clearly distinguish and consistently rank the four stands with respect to their types of forest management and the associated criteria of autochthony. CONCLUSION The surprisingly high correspondence between our descriptors of spatiogenetic structure and forest management types confirms the appropriateness of the applied measure of cluster isolation and of the criterion for the choice of the level alpha of cluster isolation. The two types of cluster structure and their characteristic descriptors are thus suggested to be promising tools for the detection of subpopulation structure. To include the effects of long-distance gene flow, the presented methods can be extended as outlined to larger spatial scales in order to detect higher order population structure.

中文翻译：

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山毛榉的空间发育特征具有不同程度的自生。

背景技术林木林分中的自生植物具有许多标准，其中林分作为种群的范围已被认为起着核心作用。因此，需要采取措施来描述种群或检测亚种群结构。这里认为，人口划定方法必须基于对成年个体之间的空间距离和遗传差异的综合考虑。将常规方法和一组新开发的方法应用于四个山毛榉林中的七个同工酶基因座，这些山毛榉林的特征在于基于自然再生的不同类型的森林管理。结果排列分析表明，在研究的山毛榉林中，空间距离与遗传差异之间的相关性变化很小。鉴于此和时空协变的相关描述词的流行，该结果令人惊讶。新开发的方法得出了不同的结论。当考虑时空分离的均值和方差时，所有看台上均会显示出重要的时空结构，其中分离是通过个体与其他所有个体的最小时空差异来衡量的。在这里，空间发育差异是通过个体之间的空间距离和遗传差异的组合来衡量的。该描述符表示山毛榉林中存在时空分簇。为了将集群结构作为子种群结构的表示形式进行显式表示，区分了两种类型的集群结构（主要的和alpha隔离的），两者都反映了亚种群结构的理想特征。尤其是在阿尔法隔离的结构中，按林群类型划分的个体比例，有效规模和有效数量明显地区分了四个林分，并就其森林经营类型和相关的自养标准进行了连续排名。结论我们的时空结构描述符和森林经营类型之间的惊人高对应性，证实了采用集群隔离措施和选择集群隔离等级α的标准是适当的。因此，建议两种类型的簇结构及其特征描述符是检测亚种群结构的有前途的工具。