Seed orchards and the link to long-term tree breeding in response to climate change

Traditional tree improvement programs start with deliberate phenotypic selection of candidate trees followed by rounds of recurrent selection characterized by cumulative incremental gain advancements. While effective, the process is elaborate, quantitatively oriented, and follows sophisticated breeding theories. Breeding and testing start with the selection of pre-determined mating designs, requiring years to complete and often is not error free, followed by experimentally elaborate, large scale, multiple sites field testing. This process is costly, takes long time to complete, and most of all, requires sustained organizational commitments for its continuation. Here I present an innovative approach that allows the capture of the genetic gain attained through conventional tree improvement programs without conducting any crosses and with simplified or possibly without the establishment of progeny test trials. The method is called “Breeding Without Breeding” and is based on combining the use of phenotypic pre-selection of better individuals, spatial statistics, informative DNA markers for pedigree reconstruction to assemble fulland half-sib families after wind pollination, and quantitative genetics analyses to identify elite genotypes for seed orchards establishment. BWB’s potential and applicability is illustrated through a retrospective study of a “conventional” Douglas-fir breeding program as well as an experimental trial of western larch. Results demonstrated the method’s effectiveness in capturing substantial amount of the genetic gain with relatively minimal efforts and allowed the development of a framework for its utility as an alternative to conventional breeding programs.