PIONEERS OF FOREST BREEDING IN THE CENTRAL BLACK EARTH REGION

The article contains brief information from the life and scientific work of the founders of forest breeding, who worked in Voronezh. On the initiative of N.P. Kobranov in 1919, on the basis of Voronezh Agricultural Institute, a forestry department was opened, which was later transformed into the forestry faculty, and since 1930 Voronezh Forestry Institute (now VSUFT) was organized. The main scientific work of N.P. Kobranov is the country's first publication on forest selection - the monograph “Oak selection” (1925), which also outlined possible ways of selection development of forest woody plants in general. Further, his associates and colleagues were engaged in the introduction and selection of forest tree species in the pre-war period: O.G. Kapper ("Study of ecotypes of tree species", 1946; "Conifers", 1954, etc.) and S.A. Samofal (manuscript of his doctoral dissertation "Heredity and variability of forest species and their importance for forest growing", 1938, etc.). Then a huge contribution to the development of forest breeding in the country was made by M.M. Veresin ("Forest seed production", 1963; "Centennial experience of afforestation in the Savalsky forestry", 1963; "Forests of Voronezh", 1971; a new program for forest selection for universities, 1966, etc.). He is the author of grandiose experiments on the geographical planting of Scots pine on an area of about 40 hectares, including more than 350 origins. In addition, he created oak, nut, Karelian birch, seed plantations and collections of hybrids of different tree species. He developed a number of new highly productive poplar hybrids. The director of the Voronezh Forestry Institute V.I. Rubtsov, who himself laid large-scale experimental field facilities for Scots pine forest plantations. Vasily Ivanovich played an important role in the creation of Central Institute of Forest Genetics and Breeding in Voronezh. Among the well-known successors of forest selection work in the country is the director of All-Union Scientific Production Association "Soyuzlesselektsiya" A.I. Iroshnikov. Under him (together with Voronezh Forestry Institute and the Central Research Institute of Forest Genetics and Breeding), a department of forest selection was organized. All these scientists have shown an example of selfless service to the chosen cause

Plant stand failures effect in genetic parameters estimation procedure in Eucalyptus sp.

The objective of this work was to verify the influence of the percentage of failures in a forest genetics experiment in the estimation of genetic parameters. The study consisted in the evaluation of two experiments of full‑sib families under randomized complete block design with three replicates conducted in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The experiment I was evaluated in January 2002, with approximately 60 months of age. The experiment II was evaluated in January 2003, with 45 months of age. In both experiments, the evaluations consisted of the measurement of the diameter at breast height and plant height. For all the investigated genetic parameters, an increase in the amplitude of the estimates was verified due to the increase in the number of experimental failures. Variances and negative heritabilities were detected, from 35% of failure, indicating that in such cases, this proportion of failure may be problematic to estimate genetic values, to estimate the gain with the selective process and for make decision.

INNOVATIVE PRODUCT OF FOREST GENETICS AND BREEDING AND ITS SYNERGICAL EFFECT FOR FORESTRY AND RELATED AREAS

New nature management, biotechnologies and other elements of the sixth technological order, to which the most developed countries are already beginning to move, also create new problems, risks and challenges. In the forest sector of the economy of the Russian Federation, such a challenge and problem is the need to strike a balance between sustainable development of forestry, as the basic sector of the forest sector, on which the entire pyramid of forestry industries rely, and environmentally responsible and safe forest management. Unfortunately, the Voronezh region has long lost its former glory, backed up by the presence of mighty oak stands and huge ship timber reserves, prompting Peter I to create a powerful Russian fleet. And when in 1970 it was decided to host the Research Institute of Forest Genetics and Breeding in Voronezh, then considerations about the revival of the forest potential of Voronezh oak forests was one of the last argument in favor of this particular territory. And today, it’s not too late to develop an ambitious project to restore selective, highly productive oak stands, increase the forest cover of the region to 12 percent or more, which will affect not only the quality of the ecological environment, growth of socio-economic indicators, increase in the yield of agricultural producers, but also at the level of investment attractiveness of the region. As a rule, in this case, the system organizes itself, the degree of its ordering increases, and a positive synergistic effect of a multifaceted nature arises. Moreover, the total synergistic effect of the self-organizing system is not a simple sum of the individual components of this effect, but often their multiplication, which significantly increases the final result

The Emergence of Forest Genetics in Portugal

This paper aims to contribute to a better understanding of the history of biology and forestry in Portugal. It will focus on the one state-owned cork oak station devoted to forestry research, showing how its foresters and scientists shaped, and relied on, the state-controlled unions, both for producing and distributing varieties of cork oak and for controlling the seeds and plants forest owners used. Portugal played a very special role in the international development of Mediterranean forest genetics during the first half of the twentieth century. Forestry genetics were decisive for the Estado Novo government, and the Alcobaça Station became a model for the future organization of other countries’ applied forestry research centers. The paper shows how the milieu of forestry scientists and breeders played an important role in the development and institutionalization of genetics in Portugal. The paper will explore how these relationships made it possible for the scientists to test, multiply, and distribute the seeds and plants they produced at the laboratory throughout the Portuguese landscape, thus demonstrating the role of scientists as active agents of state formation and landscape transformation within a corporate political economy. The history of the Alcobaça Forest Station is an important example of fascist institution building.