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Managing genetic gain and diversity in clonal deployment of white spruce in New Brunswick, Canada

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Abstract

When selecting a clonal mixture for clonal forestry, a common practice is to specify a minimum acceptable genetic diversity for the mixture, and under that constraint, to maximize its genetic gain. Three selection methods—combined index selection (CIS), clonal mean selection (GMS), and family plus within-family clonal selection (FWFGS)—together with various restrictions on family contributions (family restrictions) were used to estimate gain at a given effective population size (N e ) of clonal mixtures selected from a clonally replicated genetic test of white spruce. The designated target trait for improvement was individual tree volume at age 14 after planting. Regardless of selection method, all genetic gains were >30% at given N e from five to 20, suggesting that implementing clonal forestry was a very effective deployment strategy. Genetic gain at a specified N e could be enhanced by using appropriate selection methods: CIS was the most effective, followed by GMS and FWFGS. With an N e of 15, CIS resulted in an average gain of 43.2%, which corresponded to an increase by 8.1% and 17.3% relative to GMS and FWFGS, respectively. Imposing family restriction increased gain at an N e . Compared with the respective unrestricted selection, family restrictions increase genetic gain by 3.3%, 7.7%, and 54% for CIS, GMS, and FWFGS, respectively. The optimal family restriction level for each selection method varied with the specified N e .

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Drs. John Russell and Judy Loo for their useful comments/suggestions on an earlier version of the paper. The authors are grateful to Dr. Dag Lindgren for helpful discussion on “optimal selection” and providing us a procedure for its calculation. Valuable comments/suggestions from Dr. R. Burdon and two reviewers are also greatly acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources, Kingsclear Forest Nursery, Island View, NB, E3E 1G3, Canada

    Yuhui Weng

  2. Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service-Canadian Wood Fibre Centre, P.O. Box 4000, Fredericton, NB, E3B 5P7, Canada

    Yill Sung Park

  3. Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Management, University of New Brunswick, P.O. Box 44555, 28 Dineen Drive, Fredericton, NB, E3B 6C2, Canada

    Marek J. Krasowski

Authors
  1. Yuhui Weng
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  2. Yill Sung Park
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  3. Marek J. Krasowski
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Correspondence to Yuhui Weng.

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Communicated by R. Burdon

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Weng, Y., Park, Y.S. & Krasowski, M.J. Managing genetic gain and diversity in clonal deployment of white spruce in New Brunswick, Canada. Tree Genetics & Genomes 6, 367–376 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11295-009-0255-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11295-009-0255-4

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