Special Issue "Improving Wood Quality from Planted Forests"

Guest Editor
Prof. Dr. Gary Peter
Forest Genomics and Cell Biology, 326 Newins-Ziegler Hall, P.O. Box 110410, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-0410, USA
Website: http://www.sfrc.ufl.edu/faculty/peter/
E-Mail: gfpeter@ufl.edu
Phone: +1 352 846 0896
Fax: +1 352 846 1277

Co-Guest Editor
Dr. C. Dana Nelson
Southern Institute of Forest Genetics, Southern Research Station, USDA Forest Service, 23332 Success Road, Saucier, MS 39574-9344, USA
Website: http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/staff/286
E-Mail: dananelson@fs.fed.us
Phone: +1 228 832 2747
Fax: +1 228 832 0130
Interests: forest genetics; tree breeding; biotechnology

Co-Guest Editor
Dr. Robert Evans
SilviScan Pty Ltd, 8 Dobell Place, Doncaster, East Victoria 3109, Australia
E-Mail: robertxevans@gmail.com
Interests: wood structure; non-destructive testing; climate adaptation; forest products

Co-Guest Editor
Prof. Dr. John C. F. Walker
School of Forestry, College of Engineering, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand
Website: http://www.fore.canterbury.ac.nz/people/walker.shtml
E-Mail: john.walker@canterbury.ac.nz
Phone: +64 3 364 2118
Interests: wood quality from breeding to utilization (specific interest in pines and eucalypts); wood processing (mechanical properties, drying and preservation)

Dear Colleagues,

Genetic, biotechnology and silvicultural advances have dramatically accelerated forest tree growth, improving yields while decreasing rotation lengths. Compared with natural forests, these advances have altered the wood supply for industrial products, which are now made from fewer species and wood from substantially younger ages. Moreover, as the productivity of forest plantations continues to increase and markets change, the opportunity for tailoring wood properties of select species for specific end uses that add more value to the forest supply chain will become more feasible.
To obtain information that enables genetic development and appropriate management of trees with altered wood properties, measurement of these properties will be more essential. A number of excellent methods and instruments have been developed to measure wood anatomical, chemical and mechanical properties. However, important questions remain about genetic and silviculture affects on wood properties, their variability within and between trees, their interactions, and their affect of xylem function…. Thus, there is still a need for additional analytical and physical approaches and tools to address these and other important questions to enhance our understanding of the structure, function and utilization of wood and enable improvement of wood properties through management and genetics. A key goal towards enhancing the yield and value of wood harvested from sustainably grown forest plantations.

Prof. Dr. Gary Peter
Guest Editor

Submission

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• wood properties
• wood quality
• silviculture
• genetics
• breeding
• forest products
• bioenergy
• nondestructive testing

Type of Paper: Article
Title: Genetic Improvement of White Spruce Mechanical Wood Traits—Early Screening by Means of Acoustic Velocity
Author: Patrick Lenz
Affiliations: Canadian Forest Service -Laurentian Forestry Centre, Natural Resources Canada, Government of Canada, 1055 du PEPS, P.O. Box 10380, Stn.Sainte-Foy, Quebec, QC, Canada G1V 4C7
Abstract: Forest tree breeding and silvicultural systems have strongly focused on enhanced growth and volume production, often at the cost of decreased wood quality. Therefore, there is a growing interest in improving the wood traits of future forest plantation stocks. In a tree breeding context, trees are selected by screening thousands of individuals at a juvenile age. Acoustic devices offer a quick and cost-effective way to evaluate mechanical properties such as wood stiffness, and thus enable mass selection for desirable wood traits. In slow-growing sub-boreal species such as spruces, selection of juvenile trees is needed to accelerate the breeding process. However, the effectiveness of early indirect selection based on acoustic velocity for improving mechanical wood traits in mature trees remains largely unexplored.
In this study, we used two genetic trials of 15- and 30-year-old white spruce (Picea glauca (Moench.) Voss) to assess the applicability of acoustic velocity as a selection trait for the improvement of mechanical wood properties. In the 30-year-old plantation of half-siblings, we show strong relationships between acoustic velocity and high resolution pith-to-bark profiles of microfibril angle (MFA) and modulus of elasticity (MOE), using a novel nonlinear modelling approach. The heritability estimates of the acoustic velocity in the 30-year-old plantation were moderate to strong, and higher than those for the 15-year-old full-sib plantation. The genetic correlation between mechanical wood traits and acoustic velocity was moderate. Based on these results, we conclude that mechanical wood traits can be improved through acoustic measurements made on young trees. Weaker juvenile genetic parameters may reduce early selection efficiency somewhat at the individual tree level. Nevertheless, acoustic velocity measurements are a powerful way to predict the breeding value of crosses designed to improve mechanical wood properties.

Type of Paper: Article
Title: Wood Density and Anatomy of Peltophorum dubium as a Function of Provenance and Radial Position
Authors: Israel Luiz de Lima, Eduardo Luiz Longui *, Cintia Ceratto, Miguel Luiz Menezes Freitas, Sandra Monteiro Borges Florsheim andAntonio Carlos Scatena Zanatto
Affiliations: Instituto Florestal, Divisão de Dasonomia, Seção de Madeira e Produtos Florestais. CP 1322, CEP 02377-000, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
Abstract: We studied the wood of Peltophorum dubium (Spreng.) Taub. (Fabaceae), popularly known in Brazil as canafístula, from two seed provenances far between and with different climates. The trees were planted in a third place and cut with 28 years-old. We hypothesized that due to differences in the origin of the seeds there would be some differences in the wood density and anatomical features between provenances and that the radial variation pattern would also be different. However, our results showed no significant differences in basic density and anatomical features between the two provenances. We observed in two provenances negative relation between vessel diameter and vessel frequency toward the bark, but other anatomical features showed distinct radial patterns. In general terms we found that the P. dubium showed homogeneous wood despite differences in genotypes, an important result for the use and wood quality in the timber market.

Title: A Comparison of Qualitative and Quantitative Rankings for Assessing Epicormic Branching in Polesize Oak
Authors: Mike R. Saunders and Andy Meier
Affiliation: Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Purdue University, 715 State Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
Abstract: Epicormic branching can be a major problem in plantation management of many hardwood species. Methods to assess epicormic severity in these plantations generally rely on qualitative rankings that can be difficult to repeat and quite variable within and between stands.  In this paper, a new quantitative rating system is proposed to allow for more consistent evaluation. Initial data collected in two 27 year old half-sib white oak (Quercus alba L.) progeny tests in Indiana was analyzed to compare independently derived qualitative epicormic ratings to exhaustive branch counts, based on either the total number of branches or the total branch basal area. Exhaustive counts were only moderately correlated to qualitative ratings, making comparisons difficult. Group differences between initial rankings were statistically significant both for total counts and total branch basal area (p < 0.001), though only between the highest and the lowest ranking. From this work, a new quantitative system is proposed.

Title Variation in Wood Quality and Growth Characteristics in Intra- and Inter-specific Aspen Hybrid Clones
Authors: Foster J. Hart1, Francis de Araujo1, Barb Thomas2 and Shawn D. Mansfield1
Affiliations: ¹ Department of Wood Science, University of British Columbia, 4030-2424 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC Canada;
² Department of Renewable Resources
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta Canada
Abstract: Trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx) one of the most abundant poplar species in North America; it is native, displays substantial breadth in distribution inhabiting several geographical and climatic ecoregions, is notable for its rapid growth, and is an ecologically and economically important. As the demand for raw material continues to increase rapidly, there is a pressing need to improve both tree quality and growth rates via breeding efforts. Hybridization is considered one of the best options to simultaneously accelerate these tree characteristics, as it takes advantage of heterosis. Two aspen species showing particular promise for hybridization with trembling aspen are European aspen (P. tremula) and Chinese aspen (P. davidiana) because their native climates are similar to that of western Canada.  In 2003, poplar clones were planted in Athabasca, Alberta from the following species crosses: open pollinated (OP) P. tremuloides (NN), OP P. davidiana (CC), P. tremula × P. tremula (EE), P. tremula × P. tremuloides (EN), and P. tremuloides × P. davidiana (CN). In, November 2010, growth measurements and core samples were taken from the seven-year field grown clones. Comparisons of the mean growth and cell wall traits were made between crosses using generalized linear model least squares means tests for stem volume, fibre length, fibre width, coarseness, wood density, microfibril angle, total cell wall carbohydrate and lignin content, and lignin composition. The results clearly indicated that the inter-specific crosses offer a means to breed for more desirable wood characteristics than the pure Populus spp. crosses.