The Importance of Seedlings Quality in Timber & Bio-energy Production.

Fotis KiourtsisGeneral Directorate of Forests and Rural Affairs –D.A.M.T

Georgia ViglakiForester - Seedlings Specialist

One of the main issues that the forest sector is facing is to achieve a balance between the demand for wood production and the need to preserve the sustainability and biodiversity of forest ecosystems.

The Importance of Seedlings quality in Timber & Bio-energy Production

Red color = Forests cover area before 8.000 yearsGreen color = Forests cover area today

The purpose of the new approaches are to ensure more efficient management of ecosystems and implement intensive forestry that will increase timber yields.

To achieve this, we need to determine the macroeconomic potential of the various options available, including the use of biotechnology and genetics.

Since the quality of wood in any branch of forestry and also the solution of environmental problems are immediately connected with natural characteristics of forest, the key role in solution of the problems stated in the region has regulating of forest management.

In the field of forest management such problems should be solved, by :

defining the function of forests in a region,

the general line in all the forest branch,

substantiation of the amounts available and setting the kind of use,

providing the non-exhausting use and extended reproduction of trees,

maintaining forests as a landscape organizing and environment stabilizing factor.

The reduction of the forests natural regeneration capacity may be solved through forest certification, as described below:

a) Conservation of biodiversity and stabilization of the forests structure.

b) Hierarchy of timber production in the forest’s management process.

c) Organization and implementation of effective reforestation.

d) Maintenance or increase of forest productivity by introducing new items as and when they are required.

e) Prevention of the properties that reduce the basic parameters of the trees in seed production stands.

Reforestation is a ecological way to achieve a certain purpose, which can include

a) the production of wood, energy and other forest products (economic purpose),

b) the protection of the soil from erosion,

c) the regulation of flow of mountainous waters (water budget),

d) forest recreation and ecotourism &

e) the regulatory effect in the ecological balance of heavily disturbed ecosystems (industrial and urban).

The selection of the forest species of the future reforested stand is one of the most important silvicultural activities that define the future activities for the following decades.

The success of reforestation activities totally depends on the success or not of the species selection that will be used.

The basic requirements are:

• Be adapted to the ecological conditions of the area they will be planted in.

• To meet the requirements of the existing forestry objectives.

• The establishment and their further handling will be easy and without high costs.

The most important factors that may affect the quality of wood products are the following:

Wood speciesWood densitySapwood & HeartwoodEarlywood and

LatewoodWood Extracts & pH Irregular wood

structureFungi DiseaseVariabilityShrinkage & Swelling Fibre tensile strength

Also we must keep in mind that the Wood Industry is looking for:

• Cost savings

• Wood loss minimized

• Low cost transportation

• Standards achieve

• Eco-Labeling

• Stabilization of wood properties

• Availability of wood

The importance of seedlings quality in timber and bio-energy production based on the literature is estimated according to the heredity of the characteristics of the wood structure (except shrinkage) and it was always higher than that on the characteristics of growth and shape.

This clearly indicates that seedlings with the appropriate morphological characteristics can significantly improve the growth performance and help support the development of reforestation oriented in tailor-made timber and bio-energyproduction.

• There is much debate as to what truly constitutes a quality seedling. Most people agree that a higher quality seedling is one that performs exceptionally well in the field when all other conditions are equal.

• No single attribute may be used to define seedling quality. Instead, multiple characteristics related to both morphology and physiology must be combined to determine if a seedling has the capacity to excel in the field (Rose et al. 1990; Puttonen 1996).

• The range of characteristics useful for defining seedling quality varies somewhat between species.

It is important to evaluate the influence of factors such as

• the quality of the reforestation areas,

• the utilization of the genetic resources and

• the management of forest operations

with the environmental economic criteria such as net present value of benefits (NPV) and the corresponding flow annuities (EACF). The existing evaluations studies showed that the quality of the reforestation areas has the most influence and through validated quality seed production can generate an increase in the NPV up to 73%.

Some desirable parent tree characteristics are:

• healthy trees with a large, well developed crown

• for timber trees, a long, straight trunk with few branches

• wood quality, such as high density, or straightness of the grain

• for fodder trees, palatability and digestibility of foliage (leaves that animals like to eat and are easily converted into energy)

• fast growth rate• low susceptibility to (or ability to

quickly recover from) disease or insect attack.

High quality hardwood seedlings are selected when based on the initial height of the stem and the morphological type of the root system (stem heights 40-50 cm with a root system at least 40 cm long with rich and fine rootlets).

Reforestation based on seedlings with these morphological characteristics can significantly improve the growth performance and will help improve the reforestations that are focused on high quality wood production

In spruce plantations to evaluate the impact of certain factors such as the quality of the surfaces reforestation, the use of genetic resources and silvicultural manipulations were assessed in relation to production:

• planting seedlings from seed production stands increased the height by 10%,

• planting seedlings from cuttings and hybrids increase in height by 15%

• planting seedlings from varieties produced through embryogenesis from seed production stands and selected by using genetic markers increase the height by 20%

Wood density of Pine trees has the highest grand-mean of estimated heritability (0.63) among the six wood-quality traits, followed by microfibril angle (0.61), spiral grain (0.55), fibre (tracheid) length (0.54), stiffness (0.50), and shrinkage (0.20).

Among the five growth and form traits for main softwood trees, branch cluster frequency had the highest heritability (0.35), followed by branch size (0.27), branch angle (0.25), diameter at breast height (0.23), and stem straightness (0.23).

This indicates there is considerable non-additive genetic variance that should be exploited in breeding and deployment programmes for main softwood trees

Quality tree seedlings have the following characteristics:

• They are healthy, vigorously growing and free of diseases.

• They have a robust and woody (lignified) single stem free of deformities.

• Their stem is sturdy and has a large root collar diameter.

• Their crown is symmetrical and dense.

• They have a root system that is free of deformities.

• They have a dense root system with many fine, fibrous hairs with white root tips.

• They have a ‘balance’ between shoot and root mass.

• Their leaves have a healthy, dark green colour.

• They are accustomed to short periods without water.

• They are accustomed to full sunlight.

• If two trees are the same height and one has a larger diameter stem, then the latter is sturdier.

• A sturdy stem is less susceptible to transport and planting damage.

• Stem diameter is often related to root size. Plants with large diameter stems often have large root systems.

• Diameter is a better predictor of root size than plant height is.

• A ‘balanced’ seedling has a small to medium shoot system and a large root system.

• The shoot loses water through the leaves and the roots compensate for this loss by absorbing water and nutrients.

• ‘Unbalanced’ plants have too many leaves and too few roots. Balance refers to the mass or dry weight of the shoot and root -NOT to their length.

3 cm39 cm3 18 cm3

Review of seedlings for biomass and energy sources purposes

Biomass is one

of the most important resources

for eco friendly

energy production.

The use of biomass is a common practice in developing countries, where it is the primary source of energy products, even more than 90% (e.g. Rwanda, Nepal, Tanzania, etc).

Globally the contribution of renewable energy reaches 13%, mainly from combustion of forest biomass and generation of hydro-electricity.

In the European Union, the contribution of renewable energy sources is around 6%, while the target of the European Commission was 12% until 2010.

The main raw materials resources for bio-energy purpose in Greece are the following:

• Residue of crops, timber, livestock and agro-industry.

• Energy plants: In Greece over the past decades many species have been tested. The most important are:

Sorghum bicolor Brassica napus Kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus) Arundo donax The wild artichoke (Cynara cardunculus) Eucalyptus species (Eucalyptus globulus, E.

camaldulensis) Mischanthus sinensis x giganteus Robinia pseudoacacia Several poplar and willow species (Populus

sp. και Salix sp.), etc.

The establishment of a bioenergy purpose stand, creates many complicated questions such as:

Which type of forest management study and which standards will be used on this purpose?

Does the biomass for a bioenergy purpose allow the use of bark, branches, leaves and wood or only wood will be used?

Does the biomass for a bioenergy purpose requires higher lignin content?

Is biomass burning a single use? How will be change the species with

rotation method? Which is the necessary technical and

financial support for harvest and transporting of biomass with a low cost?

Which are the forest plants characteristics that will be used on this purpose?

• The forest bioenergy plantation will have more trees per acre, possibly 1,000 to 2,000,and shorter rotations.

• For hardwood species that resprout (coppice) after harvest, the rotation lengths can be 18 to 36 months.

Methods of reforestation that optimizes land use

and resources by growing trees specified for

multiple end products on the same stands is the

future trend . Benefits of using these methods

include the following:

Keeping lands profitable in all kinds of

timber markets.

Allowing planting of advanced genetics

across more stands.

Targeting resources on valuable crop trees,

saving money and decreasing impact on the

environment.

Allowing for high-efficiency thinning.

Making accounting possible on the expected

function of each stand component.

• One type of forest plantation takes both traditional and bioenergy concepts to a non conventional system.

• This utilizes one row of wide spacing (3m) high-value genetics for saw timber (lumber) while the adjoining row is tightly spaced for bioenergy (1m).

• This system will work with loblolly pine with a bioenergy harvest at six to eight years and a saw timber final harvest at 18 to 22 years, allowing forest landowners to increase the possibility of positive cash flow in the first years, capturing new markets for bioenergy and retaining existing markets for saw timber.

3μ

3μ 1μ

Quality tree seedlings for bioenergy purpose have the following characteristics:

high density

higher lignin content

Fast growth trees

Thinner bark layer

a dilute foliage

Finally the new EU Framework program focuses on increasing

the contribution of renewable energy, and

forest biomass production by using

high value seedlings.This is a real challenge

for forest sector.

References1. Mayfield, C.; C. Smith; B. Lattimore. 2007. Conserving Biodiversity in Forest Bioenergy

Production Systems. Pages 261–266.2. Wood quality in artificially inclined 1-year-old trees of Eucalyptus regnans — differences in

tension wood and opposite wood properties ,Shakti S. Chauhan, John C.F. Walker , School of Forestry, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand. Canadian Journal of Forest Research, 2011, 41(5): 930-937, 10.1139/x11-016

3. Forestry Chronicle Volume 85, Issue 4, July 2009, Pages 571-582 Benefits of using genetically improved white spruce in Quebec: The forest landowner's view point Gélinas, N. , Petrinovic, P.J.F., Beaulieu, J.

4. Forestry Chronicle Volume 85, Issue 4, July 2009, Pages 558-570 Profitability of genetically improved white spruce plantations in Quebec: The owner's point of view Gélinas, N. , Petrinovic, P.J.F., Beaulieu, J.

5. New Zealand Journal of Forestry Science Volume 38, Issue 1, 2008, Pages 56-87 ,Breeding for wood quality and profit in Pinus radiata: A review of genetic parameter estimates and implications for breeding and deployment ( Conference Paper ) Wu, H.X.a , Ivković, M.a, Gapare, W.J.a, Matheson, A.C.a, Baltunis, B.S.a, Powell, M.B., McRae,

6. International Journal of Biotechnology Volume 9, Issue 5, 2007, Pages 415-435 The value of forest biotechnology: A cost modelling study with loblolly pine and kraft linerboard in the southeastern USA Peter, G.F. and others

7. FlexStand™ System Guide how to plant and manage forests for improved economic, environmental and social benefits. 2008 ArborGen, LLC

8. A Giant Step-up for Increasing Timber Value on Your Land Jeff Wright and Phil Dougherty ,USA FOREST LANDOWNER MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2006

9. BIOMASS MAGAZINE 08/009 Filling a Need: Forest Plantations for Bioenergy in the Southern US WOODY BIOMASS By Ronalds Gonzalez, Dr. Jeff Wright and Dr. Daniel Saloni

10. Forest Certification: Great Expectations And Sober Reality By V.Tsvetkov PEFC Newsletter, December 2001

11. Williams, R.D. and S.H. Hanks. 1976 (slightly revised 1994). Hardwood nursery guide. USDA Forest Service, Agriculture Handbook 473, 78 p.

12. Hardwood Tree Improvement and Regeneration Center North Central Research Station ,USDA Forest Service ,Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Purdue University 9/03 Nursery Production of Hardwood Seedlings ,Douglass F. Jacobs, Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Purdue University

13. Lykidis, Ch., Grigoriou, A., 2004. The influence of steam-recovering conditions on the quality of recycled particle boards. Presented at the international Conference for “Management of Recovered Wood Recycling, Bio Energy and other Options” 22-24. April, 2004. Thessaloniki, Greece. Proceedings: 317-326.

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