Cores extracted from trees to assess wood chemistry are generally not used to assess basic density in eucalypt pulpwood breeding programmes, as the measurement of basic density requires high temperature drying. However, both wood chemistry and air-dried density can be assessed on the same core. This study found that the inter-trait genetic correlation between core air-dried and basic density to be effectively equal to one in two Tasmanian Eucalyptus nitens progeny trials. This implies that selection for basic density could be undertaken using air-dried density with little or no reduction in genetic gain, thus negating the need to extract a separate core to assess basic density and wood chemistry. The adoption of this practice could considerably reduce the cost of assessing these traits in eucalypt breeding programmes.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Research Division:	Agricultural, Veterinary and Food Sciences
Research Group:	Forestry sciences
Research Field:	Tree improvement (incl. selection and breeding)
Objective Division:	Plant Production and Plant Primary Products
Objective Group:	Forestry
Objective Field:	Hardwood plantations
UTAS Author:	Hamilton, MG (Dr Matthew Hamilton)
UTAS Author:	Potts, BM (Professor Brad Potts)
ID Code:	55377
Year Published:	2008
Web of Science® Times Cited:	3
Deposited By:	Plant Science
Deposited On:	2009-03-10
Last Modified:	2011-07-12
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