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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
In the face of climate change, understanding the adaptation potential of woody species to cope with
difíerent environmental stress events (e.g., drought, frost, pests and diseases) is required to develop
sustainable forest management practices. In this context, a key issue when pursuing reforestation
actions is to know whefher current locally adapted provenances will still show good survivat and
growth under changing environmental conditions. Cork oak (Quercus suber) is an economic and
ecológica! valuable tree species in lhe Portuguese forest ecosystems, with a wide distribution across
the Mediterranean basin. Since the species' broad natural distribution encompasses contrasting
climate and geographic conditions, a high levei of provenance variation can be expected in fitness and
functional trãits~through genetic adaptation and/or phenotypic plasticity. In this context, cork oak
provenance trials represent a valuable resource to assess the levei and pattern of variation between
and within provenances, while also allowing the identification of the most adapted seed sources to be
used in afforestation activities. Thirty five provenances, covering the entire range of the species'
natural distribution, were tested in multi-environment trials established in 1998 under different
environmental conditions in Portugal. At age 14 years from planting, height growth, aboveground
diameter and survival were assessed in two of the provenance trials that were located at sites with
contrasting climate and altitude. Using a multi-site linear mixed model, preliminary results revealed
highly significant differences between site means, as well as highly signifjcant provenance variance
within sitës, for ali the analyzed traits. Provenances originating from North África, in particular
Moroccan provenances, presented the highest survival rates and were the fastest growing in both trials, and thus performing better than local provenances. Using climate data obtained from the sites of
provenance origin, multivariate anatyses were applied to classify provenances into "climatic groups",
and then we have explored whether the magnitude and significance of previous estimates of model
parameters were affected by including climatic group as a fixed term in the linear mixed model.
Description
Keywords
Quercus suber Cork oak Evaluation of provenances
Citation
Sampaio, Teresa; Silva, João Costa e; Sanchez, Leopoldo; Patrício, Maria Sameiro; Almeida, Maria Helena (2016). Population differences in cork oak for growth and survival under contrasting environmental conditions. In IUFRO Genomics and Forest Tree Genetics. Arcachon, France