Brazil Eucalyptus Laboratory: Modelling Productivity

Eucalyptus Ecology & Environmental Sustainability : it is about Science

Stape JL, Binkley D, Ryan MG, Fonseca S, Loos RA, Takahashi EN, Silva CR, Silva SR, Hakamada RE, Ferreira JM de A, Lima AMN, Gava JL, Leite FP, Andrade HB, Alves JM, Silva GGC, Azevedo MR. (2010) The Brazil Eucalyptus Potential Productivity Project: Influence of water, nutrients and stand uniformity on wood production. Forest Ecology and Management 259: 1684-1694. (Click image to enlarge)

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Fig. 1: BEPP (Brazilian Eucalyptus Potential Productivity) Field Forestry Laboratory: Different clonal Eucalyptus tree stocking areas are subject to variations of availability of light, water and nutrients to simulate different silvicultural practices, different cultivation areas along Brazil and different genotypes for Eucalyptus tree crops.

Fig. 2: Brazilian BEPP Eucalyptus Field Laboratory: Different experimental designs are applied to the range of tree stocking plots in order to gain insight and be able to predict how and in which amounts do clonal Eucalyptus plantations use the available building materials (light, water, nutrients) to produce woody biomass in fast growing timber crops.

Fig. 3: Brazilian BEPP Eucalyptus Field Laboratory: Modelling water and nutrient cycles in clonal Eucalyptus plantations is achieved by monitoring soil status before, along and after the cultivation cycle, plus designing and building on site water collection infrastructures. Water cycle balances can hence be studied, and variations depending on rainfall, canopy interception, trunk percolation, soil absorption and excess runoff can be measured and modelized. This can later be linked to different silvicultural practices, to predict the impacts of clonal Eucalyptus plantations and to refine cultivation techniques to achieve as sustainable production as possible.

Fig. 4: Brazilian BEPP Eucalyptus Field Laboratory: Modelling water and nutrient cycles and predicting growth rates in clonal Eucalyptus plantations. Different rainfall patterns or soil water availability ranges are simulated by artificial irrigation, allowing to expand the models, predictions and estimations to different cultivation areas of Brazil, different seasonal types, different soil types, different topographic conditions for clonal Eucalyptus timber crops.

Fig. 5: Brazilian BEPP Eucalyptus Field Laboratory: FIBRIA's (Aracruz + Votorantim) staff installing water use monitoring sensors. Target: modelling Eucalyptus water use efficiency and its impact on growth rates. Individual tree water use studies are conducted by monitoring how, when and how much water (or "nutrient soup" if you preffer) is used by the trees to produce biomass.

Fig. 6: Brazilian BEPP Eucalyptus Field Laboratory: Modelling Eucalyptus water use efficiency and its impact on growth rates. Subject to the range of variation in genotypes, tree stocking and water inputs, empirical monitoring of water use can allow an estimation of both growth rates for varied environments suitable for timber crops and of water consumption and impacts on water availability at catchment level.

Fig. 7: Brazilian BEPP Eucalyptus Field Laboratory: Modelling the carbon capture process in clonal Eucalyptus plantations. Eucalyptus timber crops convert solar energy, available water and soil mineral nutrients into organic, renewable, recyclable and carbon rich biomass. Part of that biomass becomes fiber or wood based products, thus temporary CO2 sinks of diverse lifetimes at once they are the basement for industrial timber production. Another part of that biomass becomes a permanent stock of stored CO2 in sustainably managed plantations. Yet another part of that biomass decays naturally along time and emits carbon, but at once returns mineral nutrients to the soil cycles, diminishing the need of external inputs of other fertiliser with a more noticeable carbon footprint. The emitted plus an impressive extra amount of CO2 is captured again by the trees to build biomass in continuous cycles making clonal Eucalyptus plantations become air purifiers and net carbon stockers, hence contributing twice to the fight against climate change.

Fig. 8: During the last 15 years, a joint research consortium of 5 universities (University of Sao Paulo – ESALQ, Universidade Federal da Bahía, Universidade Federal do Río Grande do Norte, Colorado State University and North Carolina State University), 8 Brazilian forestry corporations (Aracruz Celulose, Cenibra, Copener Florestal, International Paper do Brasil, Suzano Bahia Sul Celulose, Votorantim Celulose e Papel, Veracel Celulose and V & M Florestal) plus 4 governmental forestry research agencies (the Brazilian Institute for Forestry Studies & Research - IPEF, the Rocky Mountain Research Station of the USDA Forest Service; the Brazilian National Council for Scientific & Technological Development - CNPq; and the French Centre for International Cooperation in Agronomic Research & Development / CIRAD - France) has become one of the most impressive and world leading technical and scientific teams for fast growing plantation timber ecology modelling, and has produced an inmense wealth scientific data and evidence supporting decission making for an increasingly sustainable management of eucalypt cultivated forests. At once, thanks to them and many others in many countries, Eucalyptus timber plantations have become one of the best scientifically studied and monitored options for both timber production and carbon storage, supplying all concerned individuals with sound information able to unmask the propagation of Eucalyptus myths. Brazil: Ordem, e Progresso.

Want to know more? Recent Eucalyptus science!

Dan Binkley, Jean-Paul Laclau, Jose Luiz Stape & Michael G. Ryan (2010) Applying ecological insights to increase productivity in tropical plantations. Forest Ecology and Management, Volume 259, Issue 9, Productivity in Tropical Plantations, Pages 1681-1683, ISSN 0378-1127, DOI:10.1016/j.foreco.2010.01.023

Michael G. Ryan, Jose Luiz Stape, Dan Binkley, Sebastiao Fonseca, Rodolfo A. Loos, Ernesto N. Takahashi, Claudio R. Silva, Sergio R. Silva, Rodrigo E. Hakamada, Jose Mario Ferreira, Augusto M.N. Lima, Jose Luiz Gava, Fernando P. Leite, Helder B. Andrade, Jacyr M. Alves, Gualter G.C. Silva (2010) Factors controlling Eucalyptus productivity: How water availability and stand structure alter production and carbon allocation. Forest Ecology and Management, Volume 259, Issue 9, Productivity in Tropical Plantations, Pages 1695-1703, ISSN 0378-1127, DOI:10.1016/j.foreco.2010.01.013

Dan Binkley, Jose Luiz Stape, William L. Bauerle, Michael G. Ryan (2010) Explaining growth of individual trees: Light interception and efficiency of light use by Eucalyptus at four sites in Brazil. Forest Ecology and Management, Volume 259, Issue 9, Productivity in Tropical Plantations, Pages 1704-1713, ISSN 0378-1127, DOI:10.1016/j.foreco.2009.05.037

Robert M. Hubbard, Jose Stape, Michael G. Ryan, Auro C. Almeida, Juan Rojas (2010) Effects of irrigation on water use and water use efficiency in two fast growing Eucalyptus plantations. Forest Ecology and Management, Volume 259, Issue 9, Productivity in Tropical Plantations, Pages 1714-1721, ISSN 0378-1127, DOI: 10.1016/j.foreco.2009.10.028

Auro C. Almeida, Anders Siggins, Thiago R. Batista, Chris Beadle, Sebastiao Fonseca, Rodolfo Loos (2010) Mapping the effect of spatial and temporal variation in climate and soils on Eucalyptus plantation production with 3-PG, a process-based growth model. Forest Ecology and Management, Volume 259, Issue 9, Productivity in Tropical Plantations, Pages 1730-1740, ISSN 0378-1127, DOI: 10.1016/j.foreco.2009.10.008

Celso E. B. Foelkel & Ester Foelkel (2008) The Friends of the Eucalyptus: Dr. José Luiz Stape. Eucalyptus Newsletter nº 14. Grau Celsius' Eucalyptus Online Book & Newsletter. www.eucalyptus.com.br

Binkley, D., Laclau, J., Stape, J., & Ryan, M. (2010). Applying ecological insights to increase productivity in tropical plantations Forest Ecology and Management, 259 (9), 1681-1683 DOI: 10.1016/j.foreco.2010.01.023

Ryan, M., Stape, J., Binkley, D., Fonseca, S., Loos, R., Takahashi, E., Silva, C., Silva, S., Hakamada, R., & Ferreira, J. (2010). Factors controlling Eucalyptus productivity: How water availability and stand structure alter production and carbon allocation Forest Ecology and Management, 259 (9), 1695-1703 DOI: 10.1016/j.foreco.2010.01.013

Binkley, D., Stape, J., Bauerle, W., & Ryan, M. (2010). Explaining growth of individual trees: Light interception and efficiency of light use by Eucalyptus at four sites in Brazil Forest Ecology and Management, 259 (9), 1704-1713 DOI: 10.1016/j.foreco.2009.05.037

Hubbard, R., Stape, J., Ryan, M., Almeida, A., & Rojas, J. (2010). Effects of irrigation on water use and water use efficiency in two fast growing Eucalyptus plantations Forest Ecology and Management, 259 (9), 1714-1721 DOI: 10.1016/j.foreco.2009.10.028

Almeida, A., Siggins, A., Batista, T., Beadle, C., Fonseca, S., & Loos, R. (2010). Mapping the effect of spatial and temporal variation in climate and soils on Eucalyptus plantation production with 3-PG, a process-based growth model Forest Ecology and Management, 259 (9), 1730-1740 DOI: 10.1016/j.foreco.2009.10.008

Foelkel, C. & Foelkel, E. (2010) The Friends of the Eucalyptus: Prof. Dr. Dan Binkley. Eucalyptus Newsletter nº 28. Grau Celsius' Eucalyptus Online Book & Newsletter. www.eucalyptus.com.br

Foelkel, C. & Foelkel, E. (2008) The Friends of the Eucalyptus: Dr. José Luiz Stape. Eucalyptus Newsletter nº 14. Grau Celsius' Eucalyptus Online Book & Newsletter. www.eucalyptus.com.br

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Eucalyptus impossible from cuttings? No way!

Rooting Eucalyptus cuttings... by millions... everyday!

Gustavo Iglesias Trabado
GIT Forestry Consulting SL - Consultoría y Servicios de Ingeniería Agroforestal - www.git-forestry.com - EUCALYPTOLOGICS

Every now and then we are contacted at Eucalyptologics with inquiries about Eucalyptus being able or not to be propagated by cuttings, even after the Woodpeckers of Paraná have already proved in this same weblog it is very possible. So, being in Brazil already, it would have been a major nonsense not to visit the largest Eucalyptus pulp maker in the world and bring you back direct proof it is more than possible!

Fig. 1: Clonal gene bank. Multiple copies of several select genotypes are kept as pruned Mini-Hedges and used as mother plants. From these, cuttings are harvested regularly to multiply vegetatively the fastest growing high yielding strains of the hybrid Eucalyptus urophylla x grandis.

When you manage an industrial forestry resource the way the Brazilian pulp and paper industry does, the motto is always "bigger, better, faster". And that starts from the very beginning! It means that each cultivated hectare should yield as much product as possible in as little time as possible at the lowest cost as possible without losing quality and under the principles of sustainable forestry.

Genetic improvement is a must for that. Tree breeding a need. It does not cost money, it saves money! After selecting the best performing specimens from wild or controlled crosses, what forest geneticists want is a whole estate filled with a new generation of supertrees. And the fastest way to deploy genetic gain is no other than mass propagation of select strains: Eucalyptus clonal forestry.

Fig. 2: Detail of the clonal Eucalyptus Mini-Hedge. Eucalyptus resurrection happens from dormant buds after each cutting harvest, providing new future cuttings, and hence new ramets.

All in all, nothing different from what you do at home when propagating fig trees, bananas, agaves or a thousand other different plants whose fruits we use or whose looks we enjoy everyday. Except that for this process to be cost-effective in the case of Eucalyptus propagation, you need some extra ingredients...

First of all, you need something reasonable to propagate! You do not invest a truckload of money setting up the minimum infrastructure necessary for mass vegetative propagation without thinking first what trait you want to improve in your Eucalyptus trees. So, a lengthy process of testing and selection for the desired trait or traits must be done in advance. After that, you also need to consider that for cost-efficient mass propagation, you need genotypes with a high rooting ability for the rooting method you are going to apply. This means a more strict selection over candidate select strains, and ongoing tests to refine both selection and propagation methodologies!

Fig. 3: Cutting selection and transplanting area. Select strains with high rooting ability harvested from the clonal bank are propagated by inducing root formation. Skilled labour and good control of temperature and humidity are necessary.

But having done all that, you yet need the proper minimum conditions to enhance root formation: high humidity, hygiene, nice temperature, a proper substrate, and a number of different environments to gradually move the rooted cuttings to their final destination.

Skilled labour is necessary at all stages: you need people with experience to harvest the Eucalyptus cuttings at the right time and with the right size; you need people with experience to select and prepare the Eucalyptus cuttings for rooting, and you need people with experience to prepare, handle and take care of the trays of Eucalyptus ramets along the whole production cycle.

Fig. 4: After a time at specially designed greenhouses, once roots have formed, the select Eucalyptus ramets are moved outdoors, to be grown to final planting size and to harden.

If all this is done properly, and if all the right ingredients are wisely used, then a Eucalyptus clonal nursery works as a Swiss clock, and is able to provide the right planting stock of supertrees as to replace an older generation of Eucalyptus timber crops by a faster growing higher yielding lower cost generation.

That is how you can increase the productivity of a given estate for the desired end product without necessarily increasing your cultivation area, which is a more costly alternative beyond a financial threshold. Which in turn can allow you to obtain faster growing renewable and recyclable fiber or biomass timber crops each year at once you manage your estate for simultaneous preservation of native ecosystems, hence avoiding some of the most evident environmental impacts of large monocultures.

Fig. 5: Only 7 years after planting, a whole new crop of Eucalyptus urograndis timber is ready for harvest, and as resurrection from coppice takes place without human intervention, a new cycle of timber production starts again almost by magic. (Click image to enlarge and see yours truly puzzled at growth rates).

In the end, growing trees, native or exotic, for an industrial purpose, if done joining at once the right technologies based on the study of tree biology and genetics and enough sensitivity to manage the man-made primary resource according to a minimum of consideration for the non productive pieces of the ecosystem... ends up relieving some pressure from other areas of the ecosystem. Always necessary while we try to keep up with the never-ending race to supply an always increasing world population with the basic raw materials that, we want it or not, will keep being demanded.

From these high tech cultivated Eucalyptus forests, the product (wood fibers) is transported to the nearby factory, where, under a thousand of different forms, it ends up becoming something you and I use everyday and some take for granted as a normal commodity.

Fig. 6: A sustainable timber production pattern that allows a proper feeding menu for the first single digestor in the world able to reach a production of 1,000,000 ton Eucalyptus cellulosic pulp (back in 2005!): FIBRIA's Jacareí Pulp & Paper Mill.

Only a few decades ago, before the cultivation of trees as Eucalyptus was generalized, paper was an expensive luxury, costly to produce both from a financial and an environmental perspective. Today, even with the normal concerns for an increased respect to the surroundings that every industrial activity should keep, the Eucalyptus pulp and paper industry of Brazil, based on the domestication of these Australian trees and the learning process initiated in this same Sao Paulo we have showed you by Edmundo Navarro de Andrade 100 years ago, walks steadily towards sustainability.

The work is not done however. It is being done every day. Since you started reading this article some minutes ago, some number between 10,000 and 15,000 eucalypts have been planted in Brazil alone to start producing the fibers you will use less than a decade ahead without even noticing. The same is happening all around the world as you read this: in Chile, Uruguay, South Africa, Spain, Portugal, India, China, Australia... And it all starts in a rooted Eucalyptus cutting.

Acknowledgements

Fibria, the joint forces of Votorantim and Aracruz

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Eucalyptus in India: timber and wheat polyculture

Gustavo Iglesias Trabado
GIT Forestry Consulting - Consultoría y Servicios de Ingeniería Agroforestal - www.git-forestry.com - EUCALYPTOLOGICS

A combined plantation of Eucalyptus and wheat? Combining Eucalyptus and pasture? Planting at once Eucalyptus and green manure crops? Noooo. Are you nuts? That's impossible. Everyone knows the "Environmentalist Theorem nº 835/a" states that Eucalyptus are those evil alien invasive tree species poisonous to your soil, and where you plant one, nothing can grow again.

Luckily for our hungry world, reality is almost always very different to environmentalist mythology.

Eucalyptus Polyculture in India: timber and grain

One out of many good examples of this are the eucalypt and poplar trees of Mr. Piare Lal in Andhra Pradesh and the Punjab. After nearly 40 years of experience in applied forestry science, the grounds of Pragati Biotechnologies (www.eucalyptusclones.com) are today a landmark for high-tech forestry, located not too far away from where the pioneers of the Green Revolution developed 'Kalyan', the first high yielding wheat of India.

But these versatile trees able to yield multiple products and services are not simply raised there for delivery to Indian farmers. Operational fields trials allow visitors to also see the combined outcomes of both tree breeding and intelligent agro-forestry design.

Eucalypt cultivated forests can achieve this way a new dimension: joining agricultural and forestry productions within the same pieces of land. Annual crops of yearly benefit while timber matures.

(Click image to enlarge)

Over 150 different select Eucalyptus clones, of both first generation pure and advanced generation E. tereticornis x camaldulensis hybrids, are being made available by Pragati Biotechnologies to tree investors in Punjab, Haryana & Uttar Pradesh wanting to take advantage of the genetic gains delivered by eucalypt tree domestication and breeding. Doubling or treebling the MAI achieved with standard tree nusery stock and making it compatible with other crops is no joke for a country with ever increasing needs of both food and raw timber. It is however a task for Norman Borlaug styled characters. Of Piare Lal type.

Corollary...

At Eucalyptologics we hope that, next time you hear or read one of the many misguided "environmental activist" trying to spread analphabetism on the subjects of monoculture, invasive alien species or Eucalyptus poisoning soils instead of trying helping fix the real problems out there, you remember cases as the one depicted today. You can then compare and decide for yourself what's going on with all that green mythology spreading like a noxious weed. Luckily, sooner or later, myths fall by their own weight. Or sometimes, with your extra help.

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Contact us / Subscribe to Eucalyptologics

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© 2007-2008 Gustavo Iglesias Trabado. Please contact us if you want to use all or part of this text and photography elsewhere. We like to share, but we do not like rudeness.

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