Forest Genomics and Biotecnology

Forests are the world’s greatest repository of terrestrial biomass and biodiversity. Forests serve critical ecological services, supporting the preservation of fauna and flora, and water resources. Planted forests also offer a renewable source of timber, for pulp and paper production, and the biorefinery. Despite their fundamental role for society, thousands of hectares of forests are lost annually due to deforestation, pests and pathogens and urban development. As a consequence, there is an increasing need to develop trees that are more productive under lower inputs, while understanding how they adapt to the environment and respond to biotic and abiotic stress.

This ebook aims to briefly summarize recent findings, to discuss long-term goals and to think ahead about future developments and how this can be applied to improve growth and quality of forest trees.