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Publications

NIBIOs employees contribute to several hundred scientific articles and research reports every year. You can browse or search in our collection which contains references and links to these publications as well as other research and dissemination activities. The collection is continously updated with new and historical material.

2000

Abstract

We have compared bud set and frost hardiness among Norway spruce (Piceas abies (L.) Karst.) provenances and families in two cold-acclimation regimes in a phytotron; low light intensity and high night temperatures (LL-HNT), and high light intensity and low night temperatures (HL-LNT) under shortening day lengths.Nine provenances from 59-66N and altitude 100-700 m within Norway, and nine open-pollinated families from a single stand (61N, 270 m elevation) were used. Both provenances and families started bud set and frost hardening earlier in LL-HNT than in HL-LNT.Correlations between the same trait expressed in two regimes were high for both bud set and hardiness at the provenance level and slightly lower at the family level. The variation among family means in bud set and hardiness was large. The differences found between the family extremes were up to 75% of those found between provenance extremes.The relationship between bud set and frost hardiness was strong among the provenance means within both environments (r = 0.92) but weak for the families (r = 0.22-0.44). Causal factors influencing phenotypic variation within traits and covariation among traits may differ for provenances and families within stands. The strong relationships among traits that are found at the provenance level cannot be generalized to the levels of families or clones.

Abstract

Relationships between crown density and growth of Norway spruce stands are presented, after removal of the effects of major natural influences. On 569 monitoring plots comprising 40 000 trees, crown density has been annually assessed during 1991 to 1996.Stand growth was determined from measurements of diameter and height in 1991 and in 1996. Various models explaining mean crown density and annual growth of the stands as a function of natural factors, like age and site index, were compared.The influence of the natural factors were then removed by recalculating crown density to residual values from one preferred model, and by recalculating growth to relative values given in percent of model predictions.Crown density and its residuals were positively correlated to growth. These relationships were weak in terms of their ability to explain variation (low R2). However, the various relationships consistently indicated that roughly 1% change in crown density corresponded to 1% change in growth. This relationship also included common spatial variation over Norway: a large part of southeast Norway had unexplained low crown density and unexplained low growth.Some other, smaller regional consistencies were found as well. The study supports the use of crown density assessments, and further it encourages the use of growth data in the search for major stress factors responsible for present forest condition.