Enhanced measurement approaches for assessing gains in spruce provenance trials

加拿大的森林业价值570亿美元，雇佣了超过23万加拿大人，贡献了超过10%的国内生产总值。对该行业至关重要的是每年种植的6.5亿株苗木的质量。在子代和种源试验中对单株树木进行评估，对于排序和选择最佳的基因型和种群，以确保最大限度地实现目标生长和产量属性以及适应性，是可持续森林管理决策的一项关键工作。该项目是不列颠哥伦比亚省森林改良和研究管理处与森林分析公司FYBR Solutions在森林遗传学价值链上的独特合作，目的是开发和展示创新的、最终可操作的方法，以测量种植在不列颠哥伦比亚省和育空地区的天然林和经过基因选择的种群的云杉的特征。通过开发更快速、有效和准确地测量种源试验的高度、直径和树冠尺寸的新方法，该项目将使加拿大成为全球森林遗传学的领先者，不仅在关键的、有经济价值的森林树种的遗传改良方面，而且在种子育种和气候适应领域。

The Canadian forest industry is worth $57 billion dollars, employs over 230,000 Canadians, and contributes over 10% of the Gross Domestic Product. Critical to the industry is the quality of the 650 million seedlings planted every year. Individual tree evaluation in progeny and provenance trials are essential for ranking and selecting the best genotypes and populations to ensure maximum target growth and yield attributes and adaptation, a critical endeavor for sustainable forest management decisions. This project is a unique collaboration across the forest genetics value chain between UBC, the BC Forest Improvement and Research Management Branch and FYBR Solutions, a forest analytics company, with the aim of developing and demonstrating innovative, and ultimately, operational approaches to measure characteristics of Spruce trees grown from natural stand and genetically selected populations, planted across BC and the Yukon. By developing new approaches to more quickly, effectively and accurately measure the height, diameter, and crown dimensions of provenance trials, this project will position Canada as a global forest genetics leader, not only in the genetic improvement of critical, economically valuable forest tree species, but in the field of seed breeding and climate adaption.