Productivity and Tolerance to Stresses in Eucalypt Plantations: Challenges and Opportunities

A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Ecology and Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (18 October 2023) | Viewed by 3484

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Forest Sciences, Federal University of Lavras - UFLA, Lavras, Brazil
Interests: tree plantations for commercial and restoration purposes; Eucalyptus plantation; pine plantations; carbon cycle; ecophysiology; process-based modeling

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Commercial eucalyptus plantations are expanding across the globe, providing a wide range of products that are in high demand, in addition to the regular pulp and paper industry. Some of these products are helping to improve the sustainability of their sectors, including civil construction, pharmaceuticals and medicine, green energy, bioplastics, etc.  Furthermore, they also play an important role in providing environmental services related to the conservation of biodiversity, soil, and water resources. To support this expansion, engineers and researchers are focusing on maintaining or increasing productivity (amount of wood produced per unit of area) and breeding varieties with higher levels of tolerance to environmental stresses, mainly water deficit and temperature (high and low). This Special Issue of the scientific journal Forests is focusing on presenting challenges and opportunities for eucalyptus plantations, as well as debating the trade-offs between productivity and tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Tree breeding;
  • Ecophysiological processes;
  • Intensive silviculture;
  • Climate change impact;
  • Carbon allocation;
  • Water use;
  • Nutrition;

Prof. Dr. Otávio Campoe
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • abiotic stress
  • climate change
  • wood production
  • tree planting
  • carbon sequestration
  • tree breeding
  • water use
  • soil conservation

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 2571 KiB  
Article
Effects of Plant Growth Promoting Rhizospheric Bacteria (PGPR) on Survival, Growth and Rooting Architecture of Eucalyptus Hybrid Clones
by Chimdi Nwigwe, Annabel Fossey and Olga de Smidt
Forests 2023, 14(9), 1848; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14091848 - 11 Sep 2023
Viewed by 1401
Abstract
Clonal plantation involves the rooting of cuttings from superior genotypes selected for their hybrid vigor and desired qualities. However, the cuttings of some Eucalyptus species and their hybrid genotypes present difficulties in their rooting capacity. Applying PGPR to cutting growth medium as a [...] Read more.
Clonal plantation involves the rooting of cuttings from superior genotypes selected for their hybrid vigor and desired qualities. However, the cuttings of some Eucalyptus species and their hybrid genotypes present difficulties in their rooting capacity. Applying PGPR to cutting growth medium as a root stimulating agent has not been extensively studied for Eucalyptus tree species. We aimed to assess the rooting capacity of cuttings taken from two poor-rooting Eucalyptus hybrid clones of E. grandis × E. nitens through the application of PGPR in nursery trials. Seven rhizospheric bacterial species that demonstrated the ability to produce indole-3-acetic acid and to solubilise phosphate were used to prepare two rhizospheric consortium inoculums in which Pseudomonas-Bacillus strains and non-Pseudomonas-Bacillus were grouped. Inoculums were tested for their rooting stimulating capacity on cuttings of the hybrids GN 018B and GN 010 and compared to the nursery standard indole-3-butyric acid. A total of 320 cuttings were treated. Both hybrid clones demonstrated significant (p < 0.0001) genotype differences for all three growth responses, i.e., total, root, and shoot length. Cuttings of both hybrids demonstrated high survival rates and rooting percentage. Although several rooting architectural configurations were prevalent, the Pseudomonas-Bacillus consortium promoted adventitious root development and fibrosity in GN 018B hybrids. Full article
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16 pages, 3730 KiB  
Article
A New Method to Calibrate Cardinal Temperatures for Eucalyptus Plantation
by Túlio Barroso Queiroz, Cristian Rodrigo Montes and Otávio Camargo Campoe
Forests 2023, 14(8), 1631; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14081631 - 12 Aug 2023
Viewed by 1368
Abstract
Developing a good understanding of the interactions between forest plantation growth and climate is essential for predicting the impact of climate change on terrestrial ecosystems and for assessing the adaptation and vulnerability of tree species. One such interaction, the response in growth rate [...] Read more.
Developing a good understanding of the interactions between forest plantation growth and climate is essential for predicting the impact of climate change on terrestrial ecosystems and for assessing the adaptation and vulnerability of tree species. One such interaction, the response in growth rate of a forest stand to changes in temperature, may be described mathematically. Some models that run on monthly time steps assume a yearly optimum, minimum, and maximum temperature for simplicity, which may not represent well to actual forest growth. Here, we developed a finer-resolution methodology that encompasses monthly growth rates and temperature limits to calibrate the parameters for an envelope curve in Eucalyptus plantations in South America. Several polynomial curves were tested to determine temperature patterns, and their yearly tree growth patterns demonstrated that responses to temperature differed by as much as 10 °C among seasons. The best curve was a second-degree polynomial curve, whose extreme values indicated the optimum temperature and whose real roots limited the minimum and maximum temperatures for growth. This polynomial was fitted every month to describe yearly changes in optimum, maximum, and minimum temperatures. When fitted to annual data, it determined 7 °C, 19 °C, and 31 °C as the minimum, optimum, and maximum temperatures for tree growth, respectively. The monthly model predictions indicated that the minimum, optimum, and maximum temperatures lay between 8 °C and 16 °C, 18 °C and 22 °C, and 27 °C and 30 °C, respectively. These monthly temperature ranges can improve the estimation of productivity in process-based models. Our results contribute to the understanding of tree growth dynamics and its relationship to changes in temperature. Accurate ranges of temperature can be used to improve productivity predictions in new expanding planting regions with no previous information or to suggest a regionalization for potential species. Full article
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