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The air temperature in Bosnia and Herzegovina is increasing (0.3 - 0.6 °C per decade), while rainfall events are more extreme. Additionally, there is an increased variability in weather conditions across all seasons, marked by rapid shifts from extremely cold to warm weather, as well as transitions from periods of exceptionally high rainfall to exceedingly dry periods. Droughts and floods pose the most significant risks. However, Bosnia and Herzegovina faces a lack of adequate information and analyses of extreme climate events, especially regarding their timing, intensity, magnitude, duration, and spatial extent. Therefore, this study aims to address these questions using the precise drought index SPEI. The identified wet years were: 1969, 1970, 1976, 1978, 1999, 2001, 2010, 2013, and 2014, while the dry years were 1961, 1971, 1983, 1990, 2000, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2012, and 2020. In the northern and western regions of BiH, the longest wet period in terms of duration and spatial extent occurred from May 2014 to July 2015. In the central and southern parts of BiH, the longest wet period extended over 19 months from February 1969 to August 1970. The longest drought with the largest spatial extent was the drought from August 2011 to July 2013. The obtained data shows a significant shift towards drier weather, as dry months have increased by 15% compared to wet months. At the same time, there has been a decrease in near-normal conditions and an increase in extremely wet months. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Isolation-by-distance (IBD) pattern among bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus L.) populations has previously been reported for this species in northern Europe. However, the number of molecular studies conducted on bilberry, using everything from isoenzymes, RAPDs to microsatellite markers, are very few and far between. Considering that Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) is a country rich with diverse fruit genetic resources, conducting a genetic characterization of the naturally occurring V. myrtillus populations could yield valuable data for the conservation and utilization of this resource. This study entailed genotyping samples collected from three bilberry populations located in Fojnica, Kladanj, and Srebrenica municipalities using seven polymorphic microsatellite or SSR (simple sequence repeats) markers. The obtained molecular data was used to calculate the correlation between the physical distance of the individual B&H populations and a parameter of the genetic differentiation (pairwise Fst). The results of the correlation analyses revealed an absence of a significant isolation-by-distance pattern among the three examined B&H bilberry populations. In addition, the most pronounced genetic differentiation was detected between the Srebrenica and each of the two remaining B&H populations. At the same time, the values for pFst were significant, albeit much lower, between the Fojnica and Kladanj populations. Bilberries from the sampled Srebrenica population appear to be distinct from the other B&H populations, possibly due to the different genetic origin of this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]