Geographic variation in coppicing ability of Fagus crenata after cutting trees in a provenance test

Abstract

Coppicing ability, defined as the amount of emerged adventitious shoots, varies among tree species. Species which frequently experience disturbances, such as heavy snowfall and landslides, generally show higher coppicing ability. Knowledges regarding within-species geographic variation of coppicing ability, i.e. whether populations disturbed frequently exhibit higher coppicing ability or not, is not fully unraveled. Provenance tests in which trees grown from seed sets collected from different geographic origins planted in a set of locations can examine whether variation in a targeted trait is genetically controlled and/or phenotypically variable. Fagus crenata provenance tests throughout Japan revealed that bud flush phenology and leaf size were different among seed sources and are probably genetically controlled. In 2014, we clearly cut trees planted in a F. crenata provenance test established in 1991 at Yamanakako, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan. In the following year, the amount of adventitious shoots emerged on the stumps were investigated to compare the variation in coppicing ability between provenances. Geographic variation in the coppicing ability was detected in F. crenata. We found a significantly positive relationship between the amount of adventitious shoots and the snowfall depth of their provenances.