Objective
This proposal is directly relevant to 1.3 The Forestry-Wood Chain and addresses sections 1.3.3.1. ' To increase the current levels of productivity and quality through selection and breeding', 1.3.1.2 To enhance the fibrious and mechanical properties of wood' and 1.3.3. 'Pulp and Paper'.
The main aim is to improve wood quality of birch available to the forest industry by using a novel approach to selection. Instead of traditional selection breeding where the selection critera have been based on growth rate and external quality of stem we intend to use advanced biotechnology to improve selection methods and breeding of birch (Betula pendula) to provide defined raw material for the wood processing and pulp and paper industries. This will lead to more efficient breeding methods for wood characters; estimates of genetic correlations involving wood characters; trials and archives of trees with different wood characters; and perhaps also an improvement in the quality of wood available to meet future likely demand.
The work is timely since there is an increasing demand for Europeangrown birch with high quality pulp. Sweden and Finland alone imports about 6 million m3 per annum from non-EU countries. Demand is expected to rise and internal production in Europe will need to be increased if levels of imports are to be minimised. There is also pressure on the forest industry to plant native hardwoods instead of exotic species, since these are environmentally more acceptable to the populations of many European countries. Improvement in the quality of birch for pulping will increase financial returns to landowners who plant this species, thereby encouring further plantation, while offering European pulp and paper manufacturers important cost savings and increased competitiveness. The tested selection procedures to be used comprise micropropagation, molecular markers, anatomical analysis of the wood and properties for pulp, paper and veneer. In the project trees growing in the widely different conditions prevailing in Sweden, Finland, the United Kingdom, and Germany will be examined by seven partners including 2 industrial enterprises, from five different member states.
The work programme has 7 interrelated objectives: 1. Examination of the variation of a range of anatomical properties relevant to the forestry industry in selected genotypes of birch. 2. Examination of the variation of the same properties within a single selected 10 year old micropropagated genotype which has been grown in different environments in four different countries (the outcome from a COST action). 3. Determination of veneer, pulp and paper qualities associated with wood anatomy. 4. Examination in the variation in juvenile and mature cambium in different genotypes and the variation in gene expression associated with this character. 5. Linking molecular (SSR) markers to properties identified in 1, 2, 3 and 4. 6. Breeding strategy scenarios for higher quality birch assisted by biotechnical methods. 7. Establish field trials for demonstration and provision of breeding material and future scientific studies.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- social scienceseconomics and businesseconomicsproduction economicsproductivity
- engineering and technologymaterials engineeringwoodworking
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesforestry
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Topic(s)
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
230 53 ALNARP
Sweden