Population genetics and reproduction biology of Populus euphratica Oliv. (Salicaceae) at the Tarim River Xinjiang Province NW China To uncover the genetic structure of Populus euphratica forests along the Tarim River in Xinjiang China a PCR set of eight microsatellite markers was established. 18 primer pairs originally developed for P. tremuloides and P. trichocarpa were screened for amplification in P. euphratica. The eight most variable loci were selected for further genotyping experiments. Subsequently two multiplex PCR assays each containing four loci were set up and optimized. Three populations containing altogether 436 trees were used to characterize the selected loci. The set was found to be moderately polymorphic (mean expected heterozygosity = 0.57). The resolution was sufficient to discriminate even siblings with high confidence (PID = 1.81x10 5). Cumulative exclusion probabilities were 0.89 (single parent) 0.98 (paternity) and 1.00 (parent pair) and proved the set&rsquo;s suitability for parentage analysis. Practical and theoretical analysis of consequences of genotyping errors in this semi clonal plant showed that the vast majority of errors (62.1%) lead to division of identical genotypes. Merging of different genotypes was found to be a very rare case (0.4%)... Populationsgenetik Populationsbiologie Mikrosatelliten Klonales Wachstum Genetische Diversität Landschaftsdynamik Auenökosysteme Microsatellites clonal growth genetic diversity landscape dynamics riparian ecosystems