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This volume provides a first-rate illustration of state-of-the-art research in the advancing area of the genetics and genomics of forest trees, especially as the pace of contemporary environmental change challenges the ability of forest tree populations to adapt. Forest tree genetics and genomics are developing and evolving at an accelerated speed, thanks to recent developments in high-throughput next generation sequencing capabilities and novel biostatistical tools. Population and landscape genetics and genomics have seen the rise of large-scale studies that employ the use of extended or genome-wide sampling. New or newly modified approaches, methodologies, and protocols can be found in this volume. Studies on both neutral and potentially adaptive variation are included at scales ranging from the cell to the landscape, contributing to the unravelling of the genotype-phenotype relationship. This volume contains an impressive list of 112 authors affiliated with 72 educational and research institutions that have contributed to the 20 papers included. The directions of state-of-the-art forest genetics and genomics research are well reflected in the main topics of this volume. Genetic diversity in nature is dealt with in nine papers. Importantly, an almost equal amount of papers (eight) concerns transcriptomics and includes some of the most recent advances of relevant research in forest trees. The volume is complemented with two papers on quantitative genetics and one paper on tissue culture. Regarding the taxa studied, the volume contains 11 studies on angiosperms and eight on conifers, while a review paper refers to both. Among the genera represented in these studies, Pinus dominates the list with seven studies and a total of 12 species studied, followed by Quercus (three studies, three species), and then by Paulownia (two studies, two species) and Betula (two studies, one species). The rest of the genera studied in this volume are: Cunninghamia, Liquidambar, Passiflora, Picea and Xylocarpus. The diversity of articles published in this Special Volume underscores the extensive range of contemporary research in this field. Clearly, this volume presents merely a glance, although a very interesting one, of a wide and extensive area of research that strives to promote knowledge in the areas of genetics and genomics of forest trees and to contribute to the management and conservation of forest genetic resources under significant environmental change.

Postfire regeneration dynamics was studied in an open Pinus halepensis woodland, in Sithonia northern Greece. During ten years after fire, data collected included plant species composition, density, height and biomass. Analysis by the Sorenson's similarity index was used to estimate changes in floristic composition, while structural data (species height, biomass and density) were used to estimate the differences of the current status from the previous one. The findings showed that the regeneration took place immediately after fire, mainly by resprouting species while the obligated seeders appeared later (after autumn) in the same year. However, ten years after the fire the ecosystem is dominated by the maquis species that existed prefire and it seems that the process of regeneration is towards to reform the previous ecosystem. The number of Pinus hale-pensis seedlings is relative low but it seems adequate to secure the presence of the species in the fu-ture ecosystem at least in the same proportion as it was before the fire.