Genetic control of intra-annual height growth in 6-year-old Norway spruce progenies in Latvia

Abstract

Biogeosciences and Forestry Biogeosciences and Forestry Genetic control of intra-annual height growth in 6-year-old Norway spruce progenies in Latvia Roberts Matisons (1) , Pauls Zeltiņš (1) , Darius Danusevičius (2) , Baiba Džeriņa (1) , Iveta Desaine (1) , Āris Jansons (1) Coupling growth with periods of favourable weather conditions minimizes risks of frost damage and maximizes annual height increment. The phenology of the formation of height increment is therefore a trait related to the adaptability of trees to annual weather fluctuations. Strong genetic control of the timing of the onset and cessation of shoot elongation has been reported for Norway spruce, but little is known about its fluctuations that occur during the growth period. The strength of the genetic control of the height growth rate was assessed for young (6 years old) Norway spruce progenies originating from six open-pollinated stands from two local provenance regions. In 2010, the length of the growing period for the studied trees was ca. 60 days. Trees from the more continental provenance region, which had later onset and cessation of height growth (by ca. 2.5 days), exhibited slightly lower increments (by ca. 1%). Accordingly, the provenance region had a significant effect on height growth at the beginning and end of the growing period. Nevertheless, considerable genetic control of the growth rate was found throughout the entire growing period (particularly at the beginning and cessation, ha 2 ≥ 0.20), except for a week-long interval around midsummer (ha 2 = 0.07). Similarly, the coefficient of additive genetic variation suggested that breeding could be applied for the improvement of height growth intensity throughout the season. The phenotypic correlations between weekly growth rates and tree height (before growth) were mostly non-significant, suggesting varying mechanisms of control, hence possibility for simultaneous improvement of the traits by breeding.

Genetic relationships between terminal shoot length, number of flushes and height in a 4-year-old progeny test of Pinus brutia Ten.

“…In a common garden experiment of P. brutia established in the Mediterranean region of Turkey, seed sources from the middle elevation distribution of the species were superior for growth and also produced a higher number of flushes than the seed sources from the peripheral distribution . Jayawickrama et al (1998) reported seed source variation in the date of cessation of annual height growth and a moderately strong correlation with total height growth, such that coastal seed sources tended to grow longer in the year and produce taller trees in Pinus taeda L. Shoot elongation patterns of pines could be adaptive, controlled by multiple environmental and genetic factors (Girard et al 2012;Hover et al 2017;Matisons et al 2019).…”