Context

Forestry is seeking to develop secondary species to diversify the mix of species planted in British forests. Tree breeding can help to make the cost of diversification more bearable.  

Scots pine is a good candidate for tree breeding as there has already been a large breeding programme in the 20th century because: 

• demand for seedlings is large and growing 

• there is clear room for improvement 

• it has been shown to socially and economically justifiable.

We are reopening the national Scots pine breeding programme by bringing together multiple sources of material into a genetic field-testing campaign. We have updated our breeding objectives to include resilience to both biotic (living organisms) and abiotic (physical and environmental) stress. 

Research aims and objectives

Aim:

Infuse resilience into the Scots pine genetic resource.

Objectives:

• Plant new Scots pine progeny (offspring) trials in 2028 in up to five locations in GB  

• Plant a new quality-assured breeding arboretum, to store DNA-verified selected parents  

• Improve understanding of, and our ability to assess, Scots pine responses to Dothistroma needle blight by exploring how variation in needle morphology (shape and structure) and spectral signatures (how they reflect light) relates to field observations. 

• Explore how Scots pine responds to compound stress e.g. drought and waterlogging (another of our projects is also looking into this, see here for more information: Investigating Scots pine resilience – Centre for Forest Protection)

Expected outcomes

• Up to five new Scots pine progeny (offspring) trials.

• A quality-assured breeding arboretum containing verified copies of selected parents.  

• New methods to use when assessing the trials in future.