|
Douglas-fir
Drought Study
Erda
Celer has a scholarship from the Turkish government to
study forest genetics at OSU. Erda began a Master
degree at OSU in the fall of 2014, and recently decided
to focus her research on a field study of drought
hardiness in Douglas-fir. This study, which was
established in March 2015, is a joint effort between the
Northwest Tree Improvement Cooperative (Keith
Jayawickrama), Bureau of Land Management (Mike Crawford,
Jeannette Griese, George McFadden), Plum Creek Timber
Company (Jim Smith), and Silver Butte Timber Company
(Darin McMichael). The study consists of 380
families from western Oregon and about 20 from
Washington that were planted on three hot/dry sites in
southern Oregon. Erda is still developing her
plans, but expects to measure survival, damage, and
height growth for the 2015 season, and the timing of bud
flush in the spring of 2016. Besides, giving her
an opportunity to learn about measuring and analyzing
field genetic tests, she also hopes to learn about (1)
genetic variation in drought hardiness during the first
growing season, (2) relationships between climate of
seedlot origin and drought hardiness, (3) influence of
initial seedling characteristics on early performance in
the field, and (4) impact of site weather conditions on
overall plantation performance (i.e., using weather
stations). Her data will also provide an excellent
baseline for additional measurements and analyses in the
future. This study will provide a field follow-up
to earlier drought hardiness work done by the PNWTIRC
(Bower
et al 2005; Anekonda
et al 2002; Lomas
1999; Bower
1998). All of this work seems more
relevant now than ever before (Summer
2015, DROUGHT! And Heat. A Forest Health
Report). |
