Breeding for growth has resulted in increased tolerance to drought at the cost of genetic diversity in Scots pine

Abstract

Climate change possess a threat to forests and forestry. Drought has been identified as a one of the main issues due to its interaction with other biotic and abiotic stresses. Few studies have been done regarding breeding effect on the adaptability to climate change. After a common garden experiment with seedling families of Scots pine from northern Sweden, we have found differences in drought tolerance between families of breeding and natural origin. We performed a high throughput analysis-based phenotyping on both canopy and root traits. Root architecture traits might be related to drought tolerance and show moderate to high heritability values. The heritability of root architecture traits can be useful not only for drought but also for adaptability to other abiotic stresses. Analysis on architecture traits show that, especially on canopy-traits, families from breeding origins show less phenotypic variance than the ones from natural origins. The methodology employed to evaluate drought tolerance and plant architecture might be useful for future research and forest management focused on climate change adaptability.