Black spruce family growth performance under ambient and elevated atmospheric CO₂

Abstract

Abstract. Seedlings from 20 families of black spruce (Picea mariana (Mill.) B.S.P.), representing a large range in field productivity, were subjected to a greenhouse retrospective test under ambient (409 ppm – year 1, 384 ppm – year 2) and high (686 ppm – year 1, 711 ppm – year 2) atmospheric CO₂ environments. After one and two growth cycles, seedling height and diameter growth significantly increased under elevated CO₂. At the end of the experiment, seedlings grown under high CO2 had a mean above-ground dry weight of 48.77 g as compared to 26.36 g for seedlings grown under ambient atmospheric CO₂. Families were a significant source of variation for all growth parameters. Although the family x CO₂ environment interaction was not a statistically significant source of variation in the analysis of variance, the correlation between greenhouse and 15-year field height growth was weaker (r = 0.29, p = 0.2177) under elevated CO₂ compared to ambient CO2 (r = 0.51, p = 0.0223) following the first growth cycle. However, following the second growth cycle, greenhouse-field correlations were similar between the two CO₂ environments (ambient CO₂: r = 0.55, p = 0.0115; elevated CO₂: r = 0.56, p = 0.0101). Thus, with this set of families, growth performance ranking after two years appears relatively stable under ambient and elevated CO₂.

Keywords

early selection, genotype x environment interaction, growth, retrospective, seedling

Citation

Johnsen, Kurt H.; Major, John E. 1998. Black spruce family growth performance under ambient and elevated atmospheric CO2. New Forests 15: 271 281