Clonal forestry

Clonal Forestry Project

The use of clones in plantation forestry is restricted by the absence of reliable cloning methods suitable for nursery use. Especially the clonal propagation of conifers is difficult: only small percentage of cutting can be rooted and tissue cultures can successfully be initiated only from very young material. Also, there is a strong public opposition against clonal forestry. The  critic is directed against e.g. diminishing biodiversity in a cloned stand, morphological inferiority of cloned trees compared to seedlings and increasing risks from pests and diseases.

In the clonal forestry project we examine clonal propagation methods, variation within and between clones and factors responsible for the observed variation. Also, we compare the behaviour of clonal material with seedlings in field trials using two model species Silver birch and Scots pine. The project is conducted in cooperation with the Finnish Forest Research Institute, Haapastensyrjä Breeding Station.

Anna-Maija Niskanen

 

People:

Ms. Anna-Maija Niskanen, researcher:  anna-maija.niskanen(at)helsinki.fi

Dr. Hanna-Leena Pasonen, researcher: hanna.pasonen(at)helsinki.fi

Dr. Jinrong Lu, researcher: jinrong.lu(at)helsinki.fi

Dr. Pertti Pulkkinen, docent: pertti.pulkkinen(at)metla.fi

Dr. Niina Stenvall, researcher: niina.stenvall(at)metla.fi

Publications:

Niskanen A-M, Kärkkäinen K and Pasonen H (2011). Comparison of variation in adaptive traits between wild-type and transgenic silver birch (Betula pendula) in a field trial. Tree genetics & genomes. DOI 10.1007/s11295-011-0387-1

Pasonen, H.-L., Lu, J., Niskanen, A.-M., Seppänen, S.-K.,  Rytkönen, A., Raunio, J., Pappinen, A., Kasanen, R. and Timonen, S. 2009. Effects of sugar beet chitinase IV on root-associated root community of silver birch in a field trial. Planta 230: 973 – 983.

Niskanen, A.-M., Stenvall, N., Pakkanen, A. and Pulkkinen P. 2009. Field behaviour of Scots pine cuttings compared to seedlings. In: Aronen T., Nikkanen, T. ja Tykkynen, T. (eds). Vegetative propagation of conifers for enhancing landscaping and tree breeding. Proceedings of the Nordic meeting held in September 10th -11th 2008 at Punkaharju, Finland. Working Papers of the Finnish Forest Research Institute 114: 20-22.

Niskanen, A.-M., Stenwall, N., Pakkanen, A. and Pulkkinen P. 2009. Effect of stock plant pruning, hormone treatments and stock plant origin on the height of cloned Scots pine in a field trial. In: Aronen T., Nikkanen, T. ja Tykkynen, T. (eds). Vegetative propagation of conifers for enhancing landscaping and tree breeding. Proceedings of the Nordic meeting held in September 10th -11th 2008 at Punkaharju, Finland. Working Papers of the Finnish Forest Research Institute 114: 59-63.

Niskanen, A.-M., Stenwall, N., Pakkanen, A. and Pulkkinen P. 2008. Comparison of growth and stem quality characters of Scots pine clones and seedlings of the same origin in a 10-year field trial. Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research 23: 484-490.

Niskanen, A.-M., Lu, J., Seitz, S., Keinonen, K., von Weissenberg, K. and Pappinen, A. 2004. Effect of parent genotype on somatic embryogenesis in Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris). Tree Physiology  24: 1259-1265.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *