Genetic monitoring of populations currently attracts interest in the context of the Convention on Biological Diversity but needs long-term planning and investments. However, genetic diversity has been largely neglected in biodiversity monitoring, and when addressed, it is treated separately, detached from other conservation issues, such as habitat alteration due to climate change. We report an accounting of efforts to monitor population genetic diversity in Europe (genetic monitoring effort, GME), the evaluation of which can help guide future capacity building and collaboration towards areas most in need of expanded monitoring. Overlaying GME with areas where the ranges of selected species of conservation interest approach current and future climate niche limits helps identify whether GME coincides with anticipated climate change effects on biodiversity. Our analysis suggests that country area, financial resources and conservation policy influence GME, high values of which only partially match species’ joint patterns of limits to suitable climatic conditions. Populations at trailing climatic niche margins probably hold genetic diversity that is important for adaptation to changing climate. Our results illuminate the need in Europe for expanded investment in genetic monitoring across climate gradients occupied by focal species, a need arguably greatest in southeastern European countries. This need could be met in part by expanding the European Union’s Birds and Habitats Directives to fully address the conservation and monitoring of genetic diversity.

Since the nineteenth century, Douglas-fir seed sources have been widely used for establishment of forest stands outside its natural distribution range. In Europe, some of these old Douglas-fir stands are registered as seed stands and provide seed sources for nurseries, although it is unclear from which region in North America they originate. In recent years, the interest in planting Douglas-fir has increased substantially because the species is seen as a potential adaptation option to climate change. This makes the assignment of European Douglas-fir stands of unknown seed origin to their geographic origin in North America increasingly important, because the genetic quality of these plantations must be guaranteed. In this study, we use 13 nuSSR loci to investigate the origin of 67 Austrian and German Douglas-fir stands of unknown origin. We performed a hierarchical Bayesian cluster analysis using 38 native Douglas-fir populations. The resulting clusters are used as reference populations to assign the 67 Central European Douglas-fir stands from Austria and Germany planted more than 80 years ago. Our results suggest that the majority of our investigated Douglas-fir stands come from central Washington (USA), the recommended seed zones for Central Europe. Some stands were located outside the suggested area, e.g. central Oregon and Santa Fe (New Mexico). The accuracy assessment of our approach revealed the best performance for the highest hierarchical level, e.g. assigning populations either to the coastal or the Rocky Mountain variety. As expected, the uncertainty increases with decreasing hierarchical level. The final assessment, if an admixture of seed sources within the European Douglas-fir stands is evident suggests that 23 of the Douglas-fir stands show an admixture which was not detected in our Douglas-fir reference populations growing in the natural distribution range.