
%0 Journal Article
%A Sheriff, DW 
%A Rook, DA 
%T Wood Density and Above-Ground Growth in High and Low Wood Density Clones of <I>Pinus radiata</I> D. Don
%J Functional Plant Biology
%D 1990/12/01
%V 17
%N 6
%P 615-628
%K 
%R https://doi.org/10.1071/PP9900615
%U https://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/PP9900615 
%X In Pinus radiata a negative relationship has usually been found between stem volume and wood density. Clones previously found to produce wood of high or low density were used to investigate interrelationships between above-ground partitioning coefficients, carbon gain, and wood density. Cuttings had been propagated c. 5 years earlier, and were 5 m high when the experiment started. Potential carbon gain of the tree was manipulated by using two light environments; one with a light level c. 1.5 times the other.    Measurements were of changes in stem, branch, and needle biomass during the 305-day experiment, of rates of photosynthesis, and of wood density by &#946;-ray densitometry and microscopy; densities determined by the two techniques were the same. For all but two trees, wood densities of a stem and its branches were the same; for the other two, stem density was 13% less than that of their branches.    Trees in the high light treatment accumulated more above-ground biomass, but there was no simple relationship between wood density and either above-ground growth or photosynthesis. With one exception, partitioning of photosynthate to stem was constant. In most cases, proportionately less photosynthate (30-80%) was allocated to below-ground biomass in the low light treatment than in the high light treatment (60-80%). 
