Phenotypic Variability and Differences in the Drought Response of Norway Spruce Pendula and Pyramidalis Half-Sib Families

Abstract

In a changing climate, forest managers need to select productive and climate-change-resilient tree species and provenances. Therefore, assessing the growth response of provenances growing in field trials to climate provides useful information for identifying the more appropriate provenance or variety. To determine the genetic gain through selection of the most productive and resilient families and to decipher the role of crown forms of Norway spruces (Picea abies (L.) Karst.), we used 24 families with a classical crown (pyramidalis) and 24 with a narrow crown (pendula) from eight provenances, growing in a 25-year-old comparative trial. The annual wood characteristics (ring width and early- and latewood), the wood resistance (expressed by latewood proportion (LWP)), and the growth response to climate of the two spruce crown forms were investigated. No significant differences between the two spruce forms were found regarding the ring width characteristics. However, three pendula families of Stâna de Vale I provenance exhibited the highest LWP and could be included in a future selection strategy, the respective trait having also high heritability. Radial growth was positively and significantly correlated with previous September and current July precipitation and negatively with current June temperature. Both spruce forms showed good recovery capacity after a drought event.

Microenvironment Impact on Survival Rate, Growth and Stability Traits, in a Half-Sib Test of Pendula and Pyramidalis Varieties of Norway Spruce

“…The lower Sr values obtained for provenance 7 (Horoaba) in the highest-altitude area confirmed the fact that the transfer of a forest's reproductive materials requires maximum caution because the incorrect use of these materials can produce serious disturbances in forest ecosystems and can lead to reduced productivity of the forests [36,52,57]. The result for the replications showed that this factor had a highly significant influence on the growth and stability traits, and this fact confirms the necessity of establishing a trial with replications in order to reduce the microenvironmental influence [26,36,40].…”

“…Therefore, in a changing climate, it is crucial to find and promote provenances and intraspecific varieties that show superior resistance to disturbance factors [30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38]. Current genetic research has shown that one of the necessary conditions for populations to adapt to changing climatic conditions is a high genetic diversity [39][40][41]. In recent decades, numerous studies have investigated the resistance, recovery, and resilience of tree species to drought [42][43][44][45][46][47].…”

“…Studies that show the superiority of the narrow-crowned Norway spruce ideotype (Picea abies f. pendula) compared to the normal-crowned (pyramidalis) variety regarding the growth traits, wood quality, and resistance to windstorms and breakage from snow have been carried out mostly in Finland [48][49][50] and Romania [26,36,40,51,52].…”

Toward the Genetic Improvement of Drought Tolerance in Conifers: An Integrated Approach

“…In particular, the authors found that populations from drier geographical origins showed a higher resilience to extreme drought events when compared to populations from more humid geographical origins, indicating local genetic adaptations [107]. Similar experiments were performed using several phenotypical traits on different conifer species, such as Pinus pinea [108], Pinus ponderosa [109], Pinus sylvestris [110] and Picea abies [111]. An interspecific study was performed comparing the drought responses of Picea abies, Abies alba, Larix decidua and Pseudotsuga menziesii.…”

Using Adapted and Productive European Beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) Provenances as Future Solutions for Sustainable Forest Management in Romania

“…The importance of this technique in the direction of forest management is related to maintaining the stability and productivity of stands [100], using reproductive material that is adapted to climate conditions and ensuring thus the productivity of stands up to the rotation period [101], along with preserving the ecosystemic services provided by forest [102]. However, these important features cannot be achieved without testing the adaptive and productive capacity of tree populations, and the only way to accomplish that is by changing the species environment using genetic tests [103,104].…”