Assessment of resistance to cavitation in cordilleran cypress using near-infrared spectroscopy

SEGURA, V.; MARÍA-ELENA FERNANDEZ; SERGENT, ANNE-SOPHIE; DALLA-SALDA, G.; MARTINEZ-MEIER, A.; CHARPENTIER, J.P.; ROZENBERG, P.

Bariloche

Conferencia; Adapting forest ecosystems and wood products to biotic and abiotic stress; 2019

INTA - INRA

Characterizing trees drought resistance is an important aimin the worldwide context of increasing forest decline and dieback. On the otherhand, wood demand is increasing all around the world, urging the need fordomestication of native species and selection of the most resistantindividuals. So far, relatively few studies have focused on tradeoffs between treefunctional traits, such as physiological and wood quality traits; nevertheless,evaluations of both are crucial to move forestry towards a better adaptationand a most valorization of their natural resources. Near infrared spectroscopy(NIRS) is now recognized as an efficient tool to predict wood quality but it isstill poorly used to predict wood functional characteristics. In this study, wetested NIRS as a high-throughput and non-destructive method for quantifyingboth resistance to cavitation and wood density in Austrocedrus chilensis.Partial least squares regression (PLS-R) models with cross validation were usedto establish relationships between the NIR spectra and wood traits. Theaccuracy of the models strongly depended on the traits being used forcalibration, with a correct accuracy for P12 and P50 and the highest accuracyfor wood density. This first approach of a NIRS-based prediction of resistanceto cavitation can still be regarded as successful. Thus, the method has highpotential to be put into practice as a rapid, reliable, and non-destructivemethod to determine, in a unique data acquisition, both resistance tocavitation and wood density.