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Alberta Seed Selection Tool (Alberta-SST)

Alberta-SST is a web-based software tool that can be used to select white spruce seed sources for reforestation in Alberta under climate change. The tool is 100% based on empirical growth observations from moving seed sources from one region to another, translating results from Gray et al. (2016). No growth projections under climate change are involved. The tool simply finds planting stock that performs well, while matching it to growth environments expected under observed and projected climate change. Other species, as well as growth projections under projected climate change, may be added in the future.

 
How to get started


Follow the link to Instructions on how to use
this tool on the right.

Then, select a target region in Alberta for reforestation below (Region G2 and I are examples with many tested seed sources)


White Spruce Breeding Regions

Northwest: Region H | Region G2

Central: Region D | Region D1

Eastern: Region E1 | Region E | Region E2

Rocky Mountain Foothills: Region G1 | Region I

 Regions
 Instructions
example


Background


For the Alberta-SST tool, we use two historical 30-year normal periods 1961-1990 (referred to as 1970s) and 1991-2020 (2000s) as well as two future normal periods 2030s and 2060s that represent CMIP6 multimodel forecasts under a moderate RCP2-4.5 emission scenario (Mbogga et al. 2010; Mahony et al 2022). However, since evolution is a slow process, we assume that seed sources are genetically adapted to pre-indistrial climate conditions, here represented as 1901-1930 climate (Figure below). Alberta-SST determines suitability of seed sources by allowing the user to minimize the multivariate climate distance (as described in Gray et al. 2011) between seed collection locations (1901-1930 climate) and historical and future planting environments (1970s, 2000s, 2030s, 2060s).


Alberta Climate Change

 
References
 

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Gray, L. K., Hamann, A., John, S., Rweyongeza, D., Barnhardt, L. and Thomas, B.R. 2016. Climate change risk management in tree improvement programs: selection and movement of genotypes. Tree Genetics & Genomes 12: 23. doi: 10.1007/s11295-016-0983-1.
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Gray, L. K. and Hamann, A. 2011. Strategies for reforestation under uncertain future climates: guidelines for Alberta, Canada. PLoS One 6: e22977.
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Mahoney, C.R., Wang, T., Hamann, A., Cannon, A.J. 2022. A CMIP6 ensemble for downscaled monthly climate normals over North America. International Journal of Climatology 42: 5871-5891.
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Mbogga, M. S., Hansen, C., Wang, T. and Hamann, A. 2010. A comprehensive set of interpolated climate data for Alberta. Government of Alberta, Publication Number: Ref. T/235. ISBN: 978-0-7785-9184-9 (on-line edition), 978-0-7785-9183-2 (print edition).

  
Acknowledgements
 

The initial version of this tool, Alberta3ST, was developed by Zihaohan Sang ✉. This analysis includes data from every white spruce tree improvement region in Alberta and would not have been possible without participation and data sharing by • Alberta Newsprint Company, • Canadian Forest Products Ltd., • Manning Diversified Forest Products, • Millar Western Forest Products Ltd., • Northlands Forest Products, Timber Ltd., • Tolko Industries Ltd., • West Fraser Mills Ltd. (in cluding its divisions: Hinton Wood Products and Blue Ridge Lumber), • WeyerhaeuserCompanyLtd.(GrandePrairieand PembinaTimberlands), and the • Government of Alberta, Agriculture and Forestry (AAF).