Genetic Parameters of Growth Traits and Stem Quality of Silver Birch in a Low-Density Clonal Plantation

Abstract

Silver birch (Betula pendula Roth) is productive on abandoned agriculture land, and thus might be considered as an option for profitable plantation forestry. Application of the most productive genotypes is essential. However, information about genetic gains in low-density plantations is still lacking. A 40-year-old low-density (400 trees ha−1) plantation of 22 grafted silver birch plus-tree clones growing on former agricultural land in the central Latvia was studied. Although grafted plantations are not common in commercial forestry, the trial provided an opportunity to assess genetic parameters of middle-aged birch. The plantation that had reached the target diameter for final harvest (DBH (diameter at breast height) = 27.7 ± 5.5 cm) had an 85% survival rate, and stemwood productivity was 5.25 m3 ha−1year−1. Still, rootstock × scion interaction and cyclophysis might have caused some biases. Broad-sense heritability (H2) ranged from 0.02 for probability of spike knots to 0.40 for branch angle. Estimated H2 for monetary value of stemwood was 0.16. In general, the correlations between growth and stem quality traits were weak, implying independent genetic control, though branchiness strongly correlated with diameter at breast height. The monetary value of stemwood strongly correlated with productivity traits. The observed correlations suggested that productivity and stem quality of birch might be improved simultaneously by genetic selection.