European Regional Development fund project No. 1.1.1.1/19/A/111
Forest adaptation to climate change, ensuring the vitality and productivity of the stands in future, is very important to guarantee the socio-economically important forest ecosystem services.
The aim of the project is to develop a decision support tool for efficient use of tree breeding results for increase of forest productivity via climate adjusted deployment recommendation and obtain intellectual property rights for it in determination of deployment areas of vegetatively propagated clones.
The project will have an interdisciplinary impact and will involve researchers from scientific disciplines such as forest science (forest ecology, silviculture, tree breeding), as well as biological sciences (mainly tree physiology) (OECD "Frascati manual" 4.1. and 1.5). Project primary scope will be Baltic countries: 495,000 forest owners – individual and legal persons, current market of forest reproductive material exceeding 100 mil plants with tendency of increase. Thus the cooperation with Lithuania (one project participant) and Estonia (common PhD student and support letter) as well as Sweden (Skogforsk, support letter) will be ensured. The interdisciplinarily and cross-border cooperation will ensure a sound platform for development of 3 PhD students involved (two PhD thesis on the project results and finalization of one additional, related to forest management risks and climate data in the project). It will also ensure development of competences of the project team and thus the rise of capacity to participate in further research in the topical areas of forest adaptation, resilience, risk mitigation and development of solutions for climate-smart forestry.e project will primarily contribute Latvia’s smart specialization strategy RIS3 priority area "Advanced knowledge base and human capital in knowledge areas where Latvia has comparative advantages and which are important in transforming economic in knowledge" and relate to the field "Knowledge-intensive bioeconomy", but also to "More efficient use of primary products for production of higher value added products, creation of new materials and technologies and diversification of application" and "Continuous search for new products and/or services". The areas of project implementation are "Forestry and logging" and "Professional scientific and technical services". Statistical classification of economic activities according to the expected output of the Project: NACE 2 "Forestry and logging" and 74.90 "Other professional, scientific and technical activities nec". The project will have an indirect impact on a sector such as NACE 16 "Manufacture of wood and of products of wood and cork, except furniture; manufacture of articles of straw and plaiting materials".
The project is related to economic activity and will be submitted by LSFRI "Silava" – the leading centre for forest science ideas, research and development in Latvia, responsible for realization of forest tree breeding program as well as project related to forest growth and yield (including National forest inventory) and forest adaptation – thus have information bases and intellectual capacity for realization of such project. The project will perform industrial research (TRL2-4).
The main activities of the project:
- Development of climate transfer functions;
- Climate matching;
- Assessment of genetic gain;
- Assessment of non-linear climate-growth relationship models;
- Development of decision-support tool.
The project’s main activities will be supplemented with project management, knowledge and technology transfer, public awareness activities.
The following support measures will be available to the target groups of the project ("scientific institution" (LSFRI "Silava) and "scientific and research staff, doctoral students"): salaries for research staff, business trip expense coverage.
The project will provide the following results:
- 10 original scientific articles;
- 1 prototype – Prototype of decision support system (tool);
- 1 know-how "Model decision support system for selection of clone material";
- Participation in 4 scientific conferences;
- 9 events to inform and involve the community;
- 3 young scientists (with a total FTE of 1.6) will be involved in the project implementation, and improvement of competences will be ensured.
Sustainability of the project results will be ensured via the continuous research activities in the areas, where the skills and competences of project team will be increased, international collaborations strengthened, and that are linked to national and international policy and strategic development documents – primarily in adaptation to and mitigation of climate change. Also open-access publication, maintained demonstration trial in Research forest, continuous development of the tool and materials in study courses will contribute to longer-lasting influence of the project results.
Keywords: forest tree breeding, forest adaptation, forest regeneration, production forestry
Scientific publications
| No. | Authors and title of scientific publication | Statuss | Veids | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Original scientific publications in scientific journals and conference proceedings with JIF at least 50% from the JIF of category | Planned: 7 (for the all Project period) | ||
| 1.1 | Matisons R., Elferts D., Krišāns O., Schneck V., Gärtner H., Wojda T., Kowalczyk J., Jansons Ā. 2021. Nonlinear weather-growth relationships suggest disproportional growth changes of Norway spruce in the eastern Baltic region. Forests, 12, 661; https://doi.org/10.3390/f12060661 | Published | Article in journal | 1 |
| 1.2 | Zeltiņš P., Šņepsts G., Donis J., Rieksts-Riekstiņš R., Kangur A., Jansons Ā. 2022. Advancing height growth models for improved forest reproductive material of main tree species in Latvia. Baltic Forestry, 28(2), 682; https://doi.org/10.46490/BF682 | Published | Article in journal | 1 |
| 1.3 | Matisons R., Metslaid S., Hordo M., Kask R., Kangur A., Salminen H., Jansons Ā. (2023) Direct and carry-over effects of temperature drive height increment of Scots pine in the north-eastern Baltic Sea region. Forest, 14(4), 791; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14040791 | Published | Article in journal | 1 |
| 1.4 | Zeltiņš P., Kangur A., Katrevičs J., Jansons Ā. 2022. Genetic Parameters of Diameter Growth Dynamics in Norway Spruce Clones. Forests, 13, 679; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13050679 | Published | Article in journal | 1 |
| 1.5 | Zeltiņš P., Rieksts‑Riekstiņš R., Prysiazhniuk L., Baliuckas V., Jansons Ā. 2023. The efects of genetics and tree growth on the presence of spike knots in Scots pine progenies. New Forests, 2023; https://doi.org/10.1007/s11056-023-09984-8 | Published | Article in journal | 1 |
| 1.6 | Zeltiņš P., Jansons Ā., Baliuckas V., Kangur A. 2023. Height growth patterns of genetically improved Scots pine and silver birch. Forestry. | Accepted | Article in journal | 1 |
| 1.7 | Matisons R., Zeltiņš P., Kāpostiņš R., Ozoliņš K., Jansons Ā. 2023. Productivity of local Norway spruce clones relates to weather sensitivity of height increment near the southern distribution limit. (submitted to Agro. For. Met. – changed and submitted to Dendrochronologia) | Submitted | Article in journal | 1 |
| Total | 7 | |||
| 2 | Original scientific articles in the journals and conference proceedings, indexed in Web of Science | Planned: 3 (for the all Project period) | ||
| 2.1 | Matisons R., Katrevičs J., Zeltiņš P., Jansone D., Jansons Ā. 2023. Environmental and genetic controls over increment suggest limited adaptability of native populations of Norway spruce to weather extremes | Submitted | Article in journal | 1 |
| 2.2 | Seipulis A., Gardiner B., Peltola H., Nicoll B., Rust S., Matisons R., Krišāns O., Jansons Ā. 2023. The Scots pine demonstrates consistent loading resistance across the West-East wind climate gradient in Europe | Manuscript | Article in journal | 1 |
| 2.3 | Jansons Ā., Zeltiņš P., Neimane U., Šēnhofa S., Rieksts-Riekstiņš R. 2020. Repeated Lophodermium needle cast have cumulative impact on the growth of Scots pine for up to 12 years | Manuscript | Article in journal | 1 |
| Total | 3 | |||
| 3 | Original scientific articles in the journals and conference proceedings, indexed in SCOPUS (A or B) | Planned: 0 (for the all Project period) | ||
| 3.1 | ||||
| Total | 0 | |||
| 3.2 | ||||
| 4 | Original scientific articles in the journals and conference proceedings, indexed in other databases | Planned: 0 | ||
| 4.1 |
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| Total | 0 | |||
| Submitted, total | 2 | |||
| Published, total | 5 | |||
| Total | 10 | |||