PIGMENT COMPOSITION OF NEEDLES OF NORWAY SPRUCE (PICEA ABIES) IN GEOGRAPHICAL CULTURES
The geographical variability of the pigment composition of the needles of the Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst.) in geographical cultures created on the territory of the Nizhny Novgorod region is investigated. The experimental site is assigned to the zone of coniferous-broad-leaved forests (the third forest-growing zone) and is included in the area of coniferous-broad-leaved (mixed) forests of the European part of the Russian Federation with soil and climatic conditions favorable for Norway spruce. Annual needles were simultaneously prepared from the periphery of a well-lit area of the crown: a total of 368 samples. The spectrophotometric method of quantitative determination of the pigment composition of the leaf apparatus was applied. Differences were found between 11 populations from different parts of the species’ natural range in terms of the content of chlorophyll-a, chlorophyll-b, and carotenoids, their sum and ratio in annual conifers. The variability of the content of the analyzed pigments has a similar character and in the estimates of the coefficients of variation is attributed to the average level on the Mamaev scale. This refers to the variation in the content of chlorophyll-a (Cv = 20.41 %), chlorophyll-b (Cv = 23.21 %), and carotenoids (Cv = 22.47 %). At the same time, the average indicators for geographical origins are quite stable, and the largest of them only slightly exceeds the smallest: for chlorophyll-a-by 1.26 times; for chlorophyll-b-by 1.29 times; for carotenoids-by 1.38 times. The significance of the differences in the pigment composition of needles of samples of different geographical origin is confirmed by the results of ANOVA. Their influence on the formation of the overall phenotypic dispersion in the pigmentation of needles was significant and reached values from 9.94±2.52 % (the proportion of chlorophyll-a and the proportion of chlorophyll-b) to 23.43±2.14 % (the content of carotenoids). The evolutionary nature of the formation of the specific biology of the representatives of these populations allows us to consider it as local adaptations to the conditions of specific habitats. The preservation of the indicated specificity when placing samples in the composition of geographical cultures confirms the fact of the presence and stability of the manifestation of geographical variability of European spruce in the pigment composition of needles.