Abstract
In some developed countries, the forest plantations were primarily consisted of few species; such as radiata pine is by far New Zealand’s most widely grown species, accounting for nearly 90% of the total planted area. However, in Taiwan, the majority of planted forest comprised over 10 species. Therefore, the project is dedicated to doing a research of breeding program of Cunninghamia konishii, Calocedrus formosana, and Zelkova serrata. At first, we will select plus trees from the results of half-sib progeny tests in forestry as well as propagate them using grafting and air-layering. Then, 5 hectares seed orchards of C. konishii, C. formosana, and Z. serrata. will be established. Morever, pollen collection and storage as well as supplemental mass pollination of C. konishii, C. formosana, and Z. serrata will be further carried out. Besides, a supply of good seed is very important in the development of forest plantations; thus, we expect to replant about 600 hectares every year. To sum up, the aim of this research is to increase biomass production through breeding in C. konishii, C. formosana, and Z. serrata. In this study, all the sequencing data could be used to develop useful molecular markers such as simple sequence repeats (SSRs), Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNPs) and InDel markers. The NGS will be used for above species, and obtain complete chloroplast genomes and developing informative molecular markers. All the molecular markers will provide for further population genetics, marker assistant breeding researches in the future. The micro-propagation system for the selected elite trees of cultivated tree species in plantation will be established to achieve the goal of preserving advantaged germ plasm and producing excellent seedlings. In order to investigate the soil nutrient status and adsorption characteristics of C. konishii, C. formosana, and Z. serrata seed orchard, the characters of soil nutrient adsorption were observed and the nutrient limit factors were discovered by the system diagnosis method of soil nutrient status. By using these data, we can optimize the amount of fertilizer applied.