The Current State of Conifer Species Breeding and Seed Production

The article analyzes and summarizes information on breeding and seed production of the main forest-forming and commercial species for the countries of Northern Europe and Russia: Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) and Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst). It is shown that in the last 40–50 years Sweden and Finland have completed the first (primary) cycle of plus-tree breeding, and the second cycle is being actively pursued. In terms of seed production, this means a gradual replacement of the 1st generation forest seed orchards with the forest seed orchards of enhanced genetic value (of 1.5 and 2nd generation). By the middle of the 21st century, the productivity of new artificial stands is expected to increase by 20–25 % in terms of stem wood stock due to breeding work. Successful and quite large-scale works were undertaken in plus trees phenotypic breeding and forest seed orchards (1st generation) planting in some regions of European Russia in the last third of the 20th century. However, even this first (primary) cycle of plus-tree breeding has not been fully completed. The latter makes it possible to lay out the necessary areas of multiplicative populations of increased genetic value – forest seed orchards of the 1.5 generation. Although this is impossible to achieve in many subjects of the Northwestern Federal District due to the insufficient number of selected plus trees and, most importantly, the extremely small area of progeny tests. At present, the vast majority of initially selected plus trees were not genetically tested, which hinders the possibility of further development of the plus-tree breeding system. Russia also lacks special breeding zoning of the main forest-forming species, providing a spatial organization of breeding work and the use of seeds from forest seed orchards. A federal program for the preservation and sustainable management of forest genetic resources of the Russian Federation, together with a number of subprograms for genetic research and breeding of the most important forest-forming species, should be developed to achieve progress in this direction, considering current advances in molecular genetics and biotechnology. Acknowledgments: Financial support of the research was provided by the federal budget for the state assignment of the Forest Research Institute and the Department of Multidisciplinary Scientific Research of Karelian Research Centre, Russian Academy of Sciences with partial support of the World-class Scientific and Educational Center “Russian Arctic: New Materials, Technologies and research Methods”. For citation: Raevsky B.V., Ignatenko R.V., Novichonok E.V., Prokopiuk V.M., Kuklina K.K. The Current State of Conifer Species Breeding and Seed Production. Lesnoy Zhurnal = Russian Forestry Journal, 2022, no. 6, pp. 9–37. (In Russ.). https://doi.org/10.37482/0536-1036-2022-6-9-37