Coastal Tree Breeding

Overview

Coastal Douglas-fir, western redcedar, yellow-cypress, western hemlock, western white pine, Sitka spruce, and a variety of hardwood tree species are important components in coastal maritime and transition forests. These species are highly valued for their growth rate and wood quality and thus there is pressure on the resource. The goal of the tree improvement program in British Columbia is to produce well-adapted seeds or cuttings, selectively bred, that will produce trees with stable and improved volume, growth, and quality, while at the same time maintaining adequate levels of genetic diversity.

The Coastal Tree Breeding research program began in the late 1950s, with inbreeding and wide crossing studies conducted by Dr. Allan Orr-Ewing. It has grown to now include breeding and improvement programs for all coastal species and many seed planning zone combinations. The Research Program ensures that comprehensive gene resource management programs are developed and implemented to ensure appropriate development of forest tree materials by conventional plant breeding practices, conservation of genetic resources, and risk reduction (i.e., adaptation and resilience to climate change and other disturbances).

The Coastal Tree Breeding research program provides critical support to: addressing second-growth management issues on the coast, such as adaptation and diversity of planting stock and achievement of free-to-grow; understanding how to adapt forest management activities to climate change and its risks; and improving industry competitiveness through protection of reforestation investments and long-term volume gains. The research program works closely with the Tree Improvement Branch, Forest Genetics Council of B.C., Ministry District and Regional staff, private nursery and seed orchard operations, and industry forestry practitioners.Top

Tree Breeding Programs

Research Highlights

  • Completed measurement and early selection in the second phase of the advanced-generation coastal Douglas-fir breeding program.

  • Completed the application of optimum selection methods to candidate selections for advanced seed orchard deployment. 

  • Analyzed western redcedar parental breeding values for volume at rotation from 10-year height data.  Breeding values for the top five parents from Series 1 vary from 26% to 38%. 

  • Examining 3rd generation deer browse resistance breeding with parental selections based on total needle monoterpenes from 2nd generation selfed and outcrossed families being established into a rapid breeding cycle. 

  • Estimated yellow-cedar clonal breeding values derived from ASReml from 10 - 12 year height data.  These forward selections from cloned diallels are currently being established in breeding orchards for the development of an advanced generation population. 

  • Outcrossing of random and select western redcedar parents from 4th generation selfed lines has been successfully started and is continuing. This material will be used to investigate inbreeding depression and hybrid vigour for growth. 

  • Completed 10-year height measurements of the western hemlock advanced-generation breeding population. 

  • Completed 2nd generation weevil resistance population crosses and established the last of the field tests.  

  • Collected western redcedar seed and scions from an additional 16 populations consisting of 151 parent trees from the east Kootenays Seed Planning Zone, as well as from Washington, Idaho, and Montana.  There is now seed from 55 Interior Cedar-Hemlock zone populations with over 550 parents, which will be used to establish a genecology study in the interior to assist in seed transfer.

  • Establishing four provenance-progeny test trials for bigleaf maple in the spring of 2008, two on Vancouver Island and two on the coastal mainland. 

  • Presented a paper at the joint meeting of the Southern Forest Tree Improvement Council and Western Forest Genetic Association in Galveston, Texas summarizing the results of a QTL analysis of growth and wood quality traits using families from the coastal Douglas-fir breeding program.

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Consultations

  • A multi-agency collaboration continues to research the genetic and ecological basis of western redcedar and yellow-cedar deer browse resistance. Collaborators include scientists from the National Wildlife Services of the United States Department of Agriculture, Simon Fraser University, and the University of British Columbia.

  • Two scientific exchanges with Scion, a New Zealand Crown research institute, has resulted in a collaborative program on Cupressaceae breeding and improvement, and computer simulations are optimizing tree breeding strategies. 

  • Multi-year collaboration with Forintek to further our understanding of the relationship between western redcedar heartwood chemicals and wood durability, and the selection of parental trees for inclusion into the breeding program.

  • Coastal Hardwood Species Committee, Chair—An interagency committee to discuss management and research issues related to hardwood tree breeding; makes recommendations to the Forest Genetics Council regarding funding priorities.

  • Frontiers of Forestry in China, Editorial Board member.  

  • On-going consultation with seed orchard owners on development of new material and access to selections.

  • Collaboration with the University of Victoria, Forest Biology Department on forest genetics statistical analysis and experimental design and graduate student support for physiology studies.

  • Consultation on DNA analysis for research supporting private seed orchard management.

  • Consultation and co-operation with the Tree Improvement Branch on initiatives such as the Forest Tree Genetic Resource Conservation and Management Challenge Dialogue and the Chief Forester’s Standards for Seed Use.

  • Invitations to Patagonia, Chile to review the use of exotic species in the Magallanes region.

  • Organized 5-needle pine meeting in Vailug (Western Carpathians of Romania) in leadership role for IUFRO committee.

  • Advisor(s) to UBC "Treenomix" (Genome BC) project on Conifer Forest Health.Top

Recent Publications

El-Kassaby, Y.A., I. Moss, D. Kolotelo, and M.U. Stoehr, [2008]. Seed germination: mathematical representation and parameters extraction. For. Sci. Accepted. 

El-Kassaby, Y.A., M.U. Stoehr, D. Reid, C.G. Walsh, and T.E. Lee. 2007. Clonal-row versus random seed orchard designs: interior spruce mating system evaluation. Can. J. For. Res. 37:690-696. 

Hak O. and J.H. Russell. 2007. Increasing quality seed production in western redcedar orchards: A synthesis of a multi-year foliar-applied gibberellin A3 study. Forest Genetics Council of BC, Exten. Note 9. [pdf] 

Kimball B., J.H. Russell, J. DeGraan, and K. Perry. [2008]. Screening hydrolyzed casein as a deer repellent for reforestation applications. West. J. Appl. Forestry. In press

King, J.N. and A. David. [2008]. Genetic approaches to the management of blister rust in white pines. For. Ecol. Manage. Submitted.

McKay-Byun, A., K.-A. Godard, M. Toudefallah, D.M. Martin, R.I. Alfaro, J.N. King, J. Bohlmann,  and A.L. Plant. 2006. Wound-induced terpene synthase gene expression in Sitka spruce that exhibit resistance or susceptibility to attack by the white pine weevil. Plant Physiol. 104:1009–1021.

Pharis, R.P., J.H. Russell, R.D. Guy, S.D. Mansfield, S.D. R. Zhang, and L.V. Kurepin. 2007. Enhanced flowering and early progeny testing - two important tools in tree improvement. A New Era for the Conservation and Utilization of Forest Genetic Resources. Forest Seed Research Centre, Suanbo, Korea. Forest Research Institute, Suwon, Korea, pp. 114-140.

Robinson, A.R., N.K. Ukrainetz, K.-Y., Kang, and S.D. Mansfield. 2007. A comprehensive metabolomics analysis of two Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) progeny test trials. New Phytologist 174:762-773.

Russell, J.H. [2008]. Deployment of deer resistant western redcedar seedlots.  In Proc. For. Nurs. Assoc. BC and West. For. Cons. Nurs. Assoc., Sidney, B.C. R. Lee (editor)In press.

Russell, J.H. and C.F. Ferguson. [2008]. Preliminary results from five generations of a western redcedar (Thuja plicata) selection study with self mating. Tree Genetics and Genomes. In press. 

Russell, J.H. and O. Hak. 2007. Effect of gibberellin A3 inductions on male and female cone production and seed quality in western redcedar (Thuja plicata). West. J. Appl. For. 22(4):297-306. 

Russell, J.H., H. Kopes, P. Ades, and H. Collinson. 2007. Genetic variation in Didymascella thujina resistance of Thuja plicata.  Can. J. For. Res. 37(10):1978-1986. 

Sanchez, L., A. Yanchuk, and J. N. King. 2008. Gametic models for multi-trait selection schemes to study variance of response and drift under adverse genetic correlations. Tree Genetics and Genomes Published on-line.

Stoehr, M., H. Mehl, G. Nicholson, G. Pieper, and C. Newton. 2006. Evaluating supplemental mass pollination efficacy in a lodgepole pine orchard in British Columbia using chloroplast DNA markers. New Forests 31:83–90.

Stoehr, M., A.Yanchuk, C-Y Xie, and L. Sanchez. [2008]. Gain and diversity in advanced generation coastal Douglas-fir selections for seed production populations. Tree Genetics and Genomes. Accepted.

Ukrainetz, N.K., K.Ritland, S.D. and Mansfield,  [2008]. An AFLP linkage map for Douglas-fir based upon multiple full-sib families. Tree Genetics and Genomes. (In Press). 

Ukrainetz, N.K., Ritland, K. and Mansfield, S.D. [2008]. Identification of quantitative trait loci for wood quality and growth across eight full-sib coastal Douglas-fir families. Tree Genetics and Genomes.  (In Press).

Ukrainetz, N.K., K.-Y.Kang, S.N. Aitken, M. Stoehr, and S.D. Mansfield. [2008]. Heritability, phenotypic and genetic correlations of coastal Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) wood quality traits. Can. J. For. Res. In press.

Wang, T. and J.H. Russell. 2006. Evaluation of selfing effects on western redcedar growth in operational plantations using Tree and Stand Simulator (TASS). Forest Science 52(3):281–289.

Xie, C.-Y., Y.-B. Fu, and A.D. Yanchuk. 2006. Accuracy of ranking individuals in field tests of different designs: a computer simulation. Silvae Genetica 55(2):45–92.

Yanchuk, A.D., J. Bishir, J.H. Russel, and K.H. Polsson. 2006. Variation in volume production through clonal deployment: results from a simulation model to minimize risk for both a currently known and unknown future pest. Silvae Genet. 55 (1):25-37.

Ying, C.C. and A.D. Yanchuk. 2006. The development of British Columbia's tree seed transfer guidelines: Purpose, concept, methodology, and implementation. For. Ecol. Manage. 227:1-13. 

Ministry Contacts

Charlie Cartwright, Research Scientist (CLRS)
John King, Research Scientist
Jodie Krakowski, Research Scientist (CLRS)
John Russell, Research Scientist (CLRS)
Michael Stoehr, Research Scientist
Chang-Yi Xie, Research Scientist

 

Ministry contact: Alvin Yanchuk
Please direct questions regarding webpage to For.Prodres@gov.bc.ca
Updated March 2008