Balancing wood production and water use efficiency in the selection of open-pollinated families of Gmelina arborea

• Published in: New forests Vol. 55; no. 4; pp. 961 - 978
• Main Authors: López-Aguirre, Ana Milena, Barrios-Trilleras, Alonso, Melo-Cruz, Omar A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.07.2024; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Balancing; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Climate change; Drought; Dry forests; Forest management; Forestry; Genotypes; Global climate; Heritability; Life Sciences; Tropical forests; Water scarcity; Water use; Water use efficiency; Wood; Tropical dry forest; Forest plantations; Forest biomass; Forest genetic improvement
• ISSN: 0169-4286; 1573-5095
• DOI: 10.1007/s11056-023-10013-x

Global climate crisis and severe water scarcity worldwide demand alternative genotypes that allow an adequate balance between production and water use while ensuring benefits for foresters. The genetic improvement of water use efficiency (WUE) in forest plantations could reduce water use without compromising yield. Above-ground biomass (AGB), saw-wood volume up to small-end diameter of 15 cm (V15), wood density (WD) and intrinsic WUE (WUE i ) from wood carbon isotopic discrimination was evaluated in forty open-pollinated families of G. arborea grown in a tropical dry forest known as a water-limited environment, to select superior genotypes considering a balance in wood production and water use. Heritability of open-pollinated family means were moderate with values of h 2 f  = 0.554 for AGB, h 2 f  = 0.541 for V15, h 2 f  = 0.608 for WD and h 2 f  = 0.495 for WUE i . Significant genetic correlations between both WD and WUE i and production traits (p < 0.05) and a nonsignificant genetic correlation between WD and WUE i were found. Although production traits and WUE i showed moderate narrow-sense and family means heritabilities, considerable responses to selection of up to 13.7% in AGB, 15.5% in V15, 2.5% in WD and 3.0% in WUE i could be achieved from intensive selection of superior families. Our results showed that it may be possible balancing wood production and WUE by selecting open-pollinated families of G. arborea with higher V15 and WUE i . The deployment of these superior families can be used as a forest management strategy to adapt the species to future drought scenarios associated with global climate change.