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Research article2003Peer reviewed

Growth and leaf morphology response to drought stress in the riparian broadleaved tree, Ulmus laevis (Pall.)

Black-Samuelsson S, Whiteley RE, Junzhan G

Abstract

Open pollinated progeny from eight maternal trees from three European populations of Ulmus laevis Pall. (European white elm) were cultivated in a growth chamber for one growth period in either a well watered or a drought stress treatment. Traits important for adaptation such as growth rate, time of budset and final dry weight were measured. Two leaves were removed from each plant for analysis of leaf morphology, as described by moment invariants and elliptic Fourier coefficients. We used univariate and multivariate analyses of variance to calculate genetic parameters in order to answer the questions: i) How much genetic variation is present in populations and families of U. laevis? ii) What is the effect of the water regime on the expression of genetic variation? Treatment effects and genotype rank changes were relatively small, but the strongly significant population and family differentiation across and within treatments for most adaptive traits and for some of the leaf shape components suggest that there is substantial additive genetic variation within these populations of U. laevis which could serve as a genetic basis for adaptation to future changes in water availability. Furthermore, the amounts of genetic variation for adaptive traits and leaf morphology were of similar magnitude within both watering regimes, i.e. there was no straightforward relationship between the water treatments and the expression of genetic variation

Published in

Silvae Genetica
2003, Volume: 52, number: 5-6, pages: 292-299 Publisher: J D SAUERLANDERS VERLAG

      SLU Authors

      • UKÄ Subject classification

      Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use

      Permanent link to this page (URI)

      https://res.slu.se/id/publ/3627