Selection of Eucalyptus grandis families across contrasting environmental conditions

Abstract

The objective was to select productive and stable E. grandis families across contrasting sites in Brazil and Uruguay. Survival and growth of 130 open pollinated families were evaluated three years after planting. Survival ranged from 28 to 89% and mean annual increment from 20.5 to 48.4 m3ha- y-1. Low productivity in one site was attributed to unusually low rainfall and in the other, because of Cylindrocladium leaf disease. Heritability among families and the correlation family by environment were intermediate. Genetic pairwise correlations ranged from 0.03 to 0.81 across sites. The lowest genetic correlation between sites was observed where Cylindrocladium leaf disease occurs. Selection of top families across sites allowed selecting the best ones in each site. However, the effect of genotype–environment interactions was observed where climatic conditions are not adequate to the E. grandis, favoring the occurrence of Cylindrocladium disease.