Climate Adapted Poplar - CLAP

Poplars and aspens have the potential to offer a flexible, sustainable source of biomass and material in the Nordic-Baltic region. Nevertheless, existing plant material is not well adapted to the growing conditions in most parts of that region.

To adapt plant material to growing conditions in the Nordic-Baltic region we aim at:

1. identifying the plant material characteristic(s) that best match the (current and future) climates in different parts of Sweden and the Baltic region;
2. developing efficient plant breeding tools for the rapid production of climate-adapted poplar genotypes; and
3. developing business plans for the case of better plant material and genotype-site match in the future.

To meet these goals, this project combines field observations along a latitudinal gradient with the development of mechanistic models, genetic and breeding tools, and business plans. More information about the four subprojects is found below.

The project is lead by SLU together with the industry partner SweTree Technologies AB (STT).