Farm Forestry New ZealandUsing NIR to Predict Wood Shrinkage and Cellulose Content in Eucalyptus Nitens
By Toby Stovold, Mark Riddell, Sunita Jeram, Jaroslav Klápste, John Lee, May 2022.
Download SWP-T146 (pdf)
Executive summary
The key outcome from this research is the ability to use predictions from NIR models for wood shrinkage and lignin/cellulose content as a substitute for expensive destructive phenotyping methods.
The evaluation was performed on wood samples retained from an open pollinated field experiment (“Keen’s block”) specifically to develop NIR based models for shrinkage based on previous data, and new wet chemistry determinations for lignin and wood sugars once funding allowed.
The NIR models developed explained up to 46% of the variation in tangential shrinkage and 26% of radial shrinkage in samples previously measured. They also explained 76% of the variation of Lignin, 32% of Galactose and 28% of Glucose. After applying the NIR models to 800 stored samples, and using the family information associated with the disks, estimated heritabilites for Lignin was 0.46, Glacatose 0.29 and Glucose 0.3, which would allow the use of the models in the breeding program.
Having models which allows the prediction of shrinkage and cellulose from wood samples adds another option for screening and selecting the next generation of E.nitens in New Zealand, beyond the traditional method based on growth and form traits.
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