@article{lstiburek_schueler_el-kassaby_hodge_stejskal_korecky_skorpik_konrad_geburek_2020, title={In Situ Genetic Evaluation of European Larch Across Climatic Regions Using Marker-Based Pedigree Reconstruction}, volume={11}, ISBN={1664-8021}, DOI={10.3389/fgene.2020.00028}, abstractNote={Sustainable and efficient forestry in a rapidly changing climate is a daunting task. The sessile nature of trees makes adaptation to climate change challenging; thereby, ecological services and economic potential are under risk. Current long-term and costly gene resources management practices have been primarily directed at a few economically important species and are confined to defined ecological boundaries. Here, we present a novel in situ gene-resource management approach that conserves forest biodiversity and improves productivity and adaptation through utilizing basic forest regeneration installations located across a wide range of environments without reliance on structured tree breeding/conservation methods. We utilized 4,267 25- to 35-year-old European larch trees growing in 21 reforestation installations across four distinct climatic regions in Austria. With the aid of marker-based pedigree reconstruction, we applied multi-trait, multi-site quantitative genetic analyses that enabled the identification of broadly adapted and productive individuals. Height and wood density, proxies to fitness and productivity, yielded in situ heritability estimates of 0.23 ± 0.07 and 0.30 ± 0.07, values similar to those from traditional “structured” pedigrees methods. In addition, individual trees selected with this approach are expected to yield genetic response of 1.1 and 0.7 standard deviations for fitness and productivity attributes, respectively, and be broadly adapted to a range of climatic conditions. Genetic evaluation across broad climatic gradients permitted the delineation of suitable reforestation areas under current and future climates. This simple and resource-efficient management of gene resources is applicable to most tree species.}, journal={FRONTIERS IN GENETICS}, author={Lstiburek, Milan and Schueler, Silvio and El-Kassaby, Yousry A. and Hodge, Gary R. and Stejskal, Jan and Korecky, Jici and Skorpik, Petr and Konrad, Heino and Geburek, Thomas}, year={2020} }
 @article{chaloupkova_stejskal_el-kassaby_frampton_lstiburek_2019, title={Current Advances in Seed Orchard Layouts: Two Case Studies in Conifers}, volume={10}, ISSN={["1999-4907"]}, DOI={10.3390/f10020093}, abstractNote={Currently, there has been an increasing demand on seed orchard designs with respect to mitigating inbreeding in advanced generations or facing severe mortality at sites. Optimum Neighborhood Algorithm design (ONA) excels in solving these issues, as shown in two case studies. The first demonstrates the application of the ONA for populating empty positions in an existing orchard. Following this concept, the ONA can be used for upgrading existing orchards, where only high-value parents are retained and new parents are introduced, thus avoiding the genetic penalty associated with the establishment of new-generation seed orchards. The second illustrates benefits of combining the ONA with the Minimum Inbreeding (MI) seed orchard design. Utilizing the MI, distances among clonal rows of selected clones were maximized on the orchard grid while the remaining single-tree positions were populated by ONA.}, number={2}, journal={FORESTS}, author={Chaloupkova, Katerina and Stejskal, Jan and El-Kassaby, Yousry A. and Frampton, John and Lstiburek, Milan}, year={2019}, month={Feb} }
 @article{čepl_stejskal_lhotáková_holá_korecký_lstibůrek_tomášková_kočová_rothová_palovská_et al._2018, title={Heritable variation in needle spectral reflectance of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) peaks in red edge}, volume={219}, ISSN={0034-4257}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2018.10.001}, DOI={10.1016/j.rse.2018.10.001}, abstractNote={Foliar reflectance is readily used in evaluating physiological status of agricultural crops and forest stands. However, in the case of forest trees, underlying genetics of foliar spectral reflectance and pigment content have rarely been investigated. We studied a structured population of Scots pine, replicated on two sites, with the selected trees´ pedigree reconstructed via DNA markers. This allowed us to decompose phenotypic variance of pigment and reflectance traits into its causal genetic components, and to estimate narrow-sense heritability (h2). We found statistically significant h2 ranging from 0.07 to 0.22 for most of the established reflectance indices. Additionally, we investigated the profile of heritable variation along the reflectance curve in 1 nm wavelength (WL) bands. We show that the maximum h2 value (0.39; SE 0.13) across the 400 to 2500 nm spectral range corresponds to the red edge inflection point, in this case to 722 nm WL band. Resultant h2 distribution indicates that additive gene effects fluctuate along the reflectance curve. Furthermore, h2 of the most widely used formats of reflectance indices, i.e. the simple ratio and the normalized difference, was estimated for all WL bands combined along the observed reflectance spectrum. The highest h2 estimates for both formats were obtained by combining WL bands of the red edge spectrum. These new genetically driven pigment- and spectral reflectance- based markers (proxies of adaptive traits) may facilitate selection of stress resistant plant genotypes. Recent development of high-resolution spectral sensors carried by airborne and spaceborn devices make foliage spectral traits a viable technology for mass phenotyping in forest trees.}, journal={Remote Sensing of Environment}, publisher={Elsevier BV}, author={Čepl, Jaroslav and Stejskal, Jan and Lhotáková, Zuzana and Holá, Dana and Korecký, Jiří and Lstibůrek, Milan and Tomášková, Ivana and Kočová, Marie and Rothová, Olga and Palovská, Markéta and et al.}, year={2018}, month={Dec}, pages={89–98} }