Differences in growth and wood density in clones and provenance hybrid clones of Norway spruce

The growing forest bioeconomy calls for enhancing wood production in Finland. Accordingly, we studied phenotypic differences and correlations for growth and wood density traits in 25 Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) genotypes grown in a field trial established in the 1970s in southeastern Finland. We also studied the effect of geographical origin of parent-trees. The clones represented six southern Finnish and three southwestern Russian clones, and three Finnish-Swiss, eight Finnish-German, three Finnish-Latvian and three Finnish-Estonian hybrid clones. Some local Finnish clones (e.g., V43) and provenance hybrid clones (e.g., Finnish-German V449 and V381) clearly displayed higher stem volume than the clone average and relatively high overall wood density (and wood biomass yield). The increase in latitudinal transfer distance of parent-trees compared to the latitude of the trial seemed to decrease the height, breast height diameter and stem volume, but the effect was not significant (p > 0.05). The overall wood density was affected significantly only by latitude of father parent trees (pThe accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author