Establishment of Regional Phytoremediation Buffer Systems for Ecological Restoration in the Great Lakes Basin, USA. I. Genotype x Environment Interactions

Author

Ronald S. Zalesny
Andrej Pilipović
Elizabeth R. Rogers
Joel Gerard Burken, Missouri University of Science and TechnologyFollow
For full list of authors, see publisher's website.

Abstract

Poplar remediation systems are ideal for reducing runoff, cleaning groundwater, and delivering ecosystem services to the North American Great Lakes and globally. We used phytorecurrent selection (PRS) to establish sixteen phytoremediation buffer systems (phyto buffers) (buffer groups: 2017 × 6; 2018 × 5; 2019 × 5) throughout the Lake Superior and Lake Michigan watersheds comprised of twelve PRS-selected clones each year. We tested for differences in genotypes, environments, and their interactions for health, height, diameter, and volume from ages one to four years. All trees had optimal health. Mean first-, second-, and third-year volume ranged from 71 ± 26 to 132 ± 39 cm³; 1440 ± 575 to 5765 ± 1132 cm³; and 8826 ± 2646 to 10,530 ± 2110 cm³, respectively. Fourth-year mean annual increment of 2017 buffer group trees ranged from 1.1 ± 0.7 to 7.8 ± 0.5 Mg ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹ . We identified generalist varieties with superior establishment across a broad range of buffers (‘DM114’, ‘NC14106’, ‘99038022’, ‘99059016’) and specialist clones uniquely adapted to local soil and climate conditions (‘7300502’, ‘DN5’, ‘DN34’, ‘DN177’, ‘NM2’, ‘NM5’, ‘NM6’). Using generalists and specialists enhances the potential for phytoremediation best management practices that are geographically robust, being regionally designed yet globally relevant.

Recommended Citation

R. S. Zalesny et al., "Establishment of Regional Phytoremediation Buffer Systems for Ecological Restoration in the Great Lakes Basin, USA. I. Genotype x Environment Interactions," Forests, vol. 12, no. 4, MDPI, Apr 2021.

The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.3390/f12040430

Department(s)

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering

Comments

This work was funded by the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI; Template #738 Landfill Runoff Reduction).

Keywords and Phrases

Ecosystem services; Multi-environmental trials (MET); Phenotypic plasticity; Phyto buffers; Phyto-recurrent selection; Phytotechnologies; Poplars; Populus

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

1999-4907

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Final Version

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2021 The Authors, All rights reserved.

Creative Commons Licensing

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Publication Date

02 Apr 2021