Abstract

Fertility variation and effective number of parent in Taurus fir (Abies cilicica Carr.) populations

Author(s): Fatih ��������������������������������lk�������������������������������¼d�������������������������������¼r, Nebi Bilir

The paper was carried out to contribute for silvicultural and geneticbreeding practices of Taurus fir (Abies cilicica Carr.) based on cone production, growth characteristics (height, diameter at breast height, crown diameter and age) and also altitude. The data was collected 90 mother trees sampled phenotypically, from three natural populations selected attitudinally (1500m>; 1500m - 1750m; 1750m<) in Seydisehir district in 2012. Average of number of cones was 6.7 while there were large differences among populations and within population. However, cone production was three times higher in low altitude than that of high altitude. The fertility variation was the highest (1.471) in the low population. Effective number of parents (17) and relative effective number of parents (68%) was the highest in the high population. It was 41.5 (47.2%) in polled population. Age, diameter at breast height and crown diameter have positive and significant (0.05) effective on cone production, while tree height has no effect (0.05) on the production. Besides, there was negative correlation between cone production and altitude (r=-0.350; 0.05). Results of the study were discussed for forestry practice and genetic-breeding of the species.