The Golden Spruce

The Golden Spruce
Author: John Vaillant
Publisher: Vintage Canada
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2009-03-18
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0307371328

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • WINNER OF THE GOVERNOR GENERAL'S LITERARY AWARD FOR NON-FICTION • WINNER OF THE WRITERS’ TRUST NON-FICTION PRIZE “Absolutely spellbinding.” —The New York Times The environmental true-crime story of a glorious natural wonder, the man who destroyed it, and the fascinating, troubling context in which this act took place. FEATURING A NEW AFTERWORD BY THE AUTHOR On a winter night in 1997, a British Columbia timber scout named Grant Hadwin committed an act of shocking violence in the mythic Queen Charlotte Islands. His victim was legendary: a unique 300-year-old Sitka spruce tree, fifty metres tall and covered with luminous golden needles. In a bizarre environmental protest, Hadwin attacked the tree with a chainsaw. Two days later, it fell, horrifying an entire community. Not only was the golden spruce a scientific marvel and a tourist attraction, it was sacred to the Haida people and beloved by local loggers. Shortly after confessing to the crime, Hadwin disappeared under suspicious circumstances and is missing to this day. As John Vaillant deftly braids together the strands of this thrilling mystery, he brings to life the ancient beauty of the coastal wilderness, the historical collision of Europeans and the Haida, and the harrowing world of logging—the most dangerous land-based job in North America.

Genetics, Genomics and Breeding of Conifers

Genetics, Genomics and Breeding of Conifers
Author: Christophe Plomion
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 486
Release: 2011-08-10
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1578087198

With contributions by internationally reputed researchers in the field, this book presents the implications of the genomic revolution for conifers—promoting a better understanding of the evolution of these organisms as well as new knowledge about the molecular basis of quantitative trait variation. Both of these discoveries play important roles in their domestication. Topics include cytogenetics, patterns of nucleotide diversity, genetic mapping, integration of molecular markers in breeding, transcriptomics, advances in proteomics and metabolomics in gymnosperms, and economic importance.

Conservation and the Genetics of Populations

Conservation and the Genetics of Populations
Author: Fred W. Allendorf
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 636
Release: 2012-10-05
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1118408578

Loss of biodiversity is among the greatest problems facing the world today. Conservation and the Genetics of Populations gives a comprehensive overview of the essential background, concepts, and tools needed to understand how genetic information can be used to conserve species threatened with extinction, and to manage species of ecological or commercial importance. New molecular techniques, statistical methods, and computer programs, genetic principles, and methods are becoming increasingly useful in the conservation of biological diversity. Using a balance of data and theory, coupled with basic and applied research examples, this book examines genetic and phenotypic variation in natural populations, the principles and mechanisms of evolutionary change, the interpretation of genetic data from natural populations, and how these can be applied to conservation. The book includes examples from plants, animals, and microbes in wild and captive populations. This second edition contains new chapters on Climate Change and Exploited Populations as well as new sections on genomics, genetic monitoring, emerging diseases, metagenomics, and more. One-third of the references in this edition were published after the first edition. Each of the 22 chapters and the statistical appendix have a Guest Box written by an expert in that particular topic (including James Crow, Louis Bernatchez, Loren Rieseberg, Rick Shine, and Lisette Waits). This book is essential for advanced undergraduate and graduate students of conservation genetics, natural resource management, and conservation biology, as well as professional conservation biologists working for wildlife and habitat management agencies. Additional resources for this book can be found at: www.wiley.com/go/allendorf/populations.

Population Genetics of Forest Trees

Population Genetics of Forest Trees
Author: W.T. Adams
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 423
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9401128154

Tropical climates, which occur between 23°30'N and S latitude (Jacob 1988), encompass a wide variety of plant communities (Hartshorn 1983, 1988), many of which are diverse in their woody floras. Within this geographic region, temperature and the amount and seasonality of rainfall define habitat types (UNESCO 1978). The F AO has estimated that there 1 are about 19 million km of potentially forested area in the global tropics, of which 58% were estimated to still be in closed forest in the mid-1970s (Sommers 1976; UNESCO 1978). Of this potentially forested region, 42% is categorized as dry forest lifezone, 33% is tropical moist forest, and 25% is wet or rain forest (Lugo 1988). The species diversity of these tropical habitats is very high. Raven (1976, in Mooney 1988) estimated that 65% of the 250,000 or more plant species of the earth are found in tropical regions. Of this floristic assemblage, a large fraction are woody species. In the well-collected tropical moist forest of Barro Colorado Island, Panama, 39. 7% (481 of 1212 species) of the native phanerogams are woody, arborescent species (Croat 1978). Another 21. 9% are woody vines and lianas. Southeast Asian Dipterocarp forests may contain 120-200 species of trees per hectare (Whitmore 1984), and recent surveys in upper Amazonia re corded from 89 to 283 woody species ~ 10 cm dbh per hectare (Gentry 1988). Tropical communities thus represent a global woody flora of significant scope.

Forest Genetics and Sustainability

Forest Genetics and Sustainability
Author: Csaba Mátyás
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 309
Release: 2013-11-11
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 9401715769

During the 4th International Consultation on Forest Genetics and Tree Building, held in 1998 in Beijing, China, leading scientists were invited to review past achievements, to redefine the role of forest genetics and breeding in contemporary forestry, and to set priorities for future research and development. On the basis of the invited presentations, the volume summarizes the state of knowledge in various fields, such as the impact of forest management and of changing environmental conditions on genetic resources, and the value of genetic markers as indicators for adaptational potential, as well as the tasks of conservation. Detailed reports from the different continents provide a comprehensive diagnosis of the global situation of forest genetics and tree breeding research. The book offers not only an overview of contemporary trends and expected future developments, but also identifies current main problems in funding and cooperation. It may prove therefore useful not only for scientists, university lecturers and advanced students in the field of forestry, ecology and conservation biology, but also for decision makers and managers in companies and conservation organizations.

Forest Genomics and Biotechnology

Forest Genomics and Biotechnology
Author: Isabel Allona
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Total Pages: 185
Release: 2019-11-27
Genre:
ISBN: 2889631788

This Research Topic addresses research in genomics and biotechnology to improve the growth and quality of forest trees for wood, pulp, biorefineries and carbon capture. Forests are the world’s greatest repository of terrestrial biomass and biodiversity. Forests serve critical ecological services, supporting the preservation of fauna and flora, and water resources. Planted forests also offer a renewable source of timber, for pulp and paper production, and the biorefinery. Despite their fundamental role for society, thousands of hectares of forests are lost annually due to deforestation, pests, pathogens and urban development. As a consequence, there is an increasing need to develop trees that are more productive under lower inputs, while understanding how they adapt to the environment and respond to biotic and abiotic stress. Forest genomics and biotechnology, disciplines that study the genetic composition of trees and the methods required to modify them, began over a quarter of a century ago with the development of the first genetic maps and establishment of early methods of genetic transformation. Since then, genomics and biotechnology have impacted all research areas of forestry. Genome analyses of tree populations have uncovered genes involved in adaptation and response to biotic and abiotic stress. Genes that regulate growth and development have been identified, and in many cases their mechanisms of action have been described. Genetic transformation is now widely used to understand the roles of genes and to develop germplasm that is more suitable for commercial tree plantations. However, in contrast to many annual crops that have benefited from centuries of domestication and extensive genomic and biotechnology research, in forestry the field is still in its infancy. Thus, tremendous opportunities remain unexplored. This Research Topic aims to briefly summarize recent findings, to discuss long-term goals and to think ahead about future developments and how this can be applied to improve growth and quality of forest trees.