FCBA - Silviculture

Since the 1960s, AFOCEL then FCBA has set up more than 3,000 forest experiments. A thousand is still followed at present, which represents approximately 2 500 hectares. It is the largest network of experimental trials in Europe and their distribution is represented in the Figure 2.

Figure 2 – Distribution of FCBA experimental trials network in France.

In this field of activity, the data collected have an interest for very long periods like the life span of a tree (dozens of years even higher than one hundred). These data form the basis of numerous studies on new themes such as wood energy or climate change.

The experimental stands are installed throughout the whole French territory and managed by the staff of the territorial delegations, each delegation having a well-defined geographical area. Historically, it was considered essential to centralize information on these stands which led to the creation of a database (ESSSIG) which includes all data relating to the experimental trials. This SQL Server format base is accessible by viewing by all the FCBA staff via an interface developed internally. Testing officials have access in creation/modification for tests which they are responsible. The database handler has access to create/change on the whole database. ESSSIG database contains around 3 000 experiments, 1.8 million trees, 8 million ratings and 6,500 files or measures linked (format PDF, EXCEL, WORD or text). Every year, around 20 news experimental stands are put in place and about 150 are measured (350 000 measured trees).

A second database is AFOGENE. It includes the descriptive information of genetic material tested at FCBA since the 1970s. This database currently contains more than 43,000 references and is enriched each year by new FCBA (eucalyptus, maritime pine and poplar essentially) varieties and germplasm (seed lots) sent by other research organizations. Complementary to ESSSIG, AFOGENE describes the genetic material tested on FCBA’s experimental plots or used on silvicultural trials. It allows to know the provenance of the seed received externally and manage the genealogy of the materials created by the FCBA.

Finally, BIOGENE database is used by the Laboratory of Biotechnology to record all transactions carried out on the plant material to ensure complete traceability on the genetic or phenotypic (as many stages of multiplications are carried out) and on the different treatments (cryopreservation, multiplication, initiation or maturation on various media) undergone by the genetic material.