Clonal testing efficiency: the trade-offs between clones tested and ramets per clone

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Abstract
Three contrasting simulation models were developed to investigate testing efficiencies in a clonal selection program. The variables investigated were number of total plants tested, number of candidate clones tested, number of ramets per clone, number of clones selected, selection intensity, and broad-sense heritability. The model deemed appropriate to most clonal forestry situations selected a fixed number of clones in an experiment with the total number of plants in the test held constant. In this model, as the number of ramets per clone was varied, the number of candidate clones tested and the selection intensity necessarily also varied. This model indicates that cloning individuals for testing is useful when selection is based on a characteristic or index with broad-sense heritability less than about 0.6. At the lower heritabilities, two to six ramets per clone per site usually produces the optimum level of cloning, the exact number depending upon the selection intensity and heritability. Predictions generated by this fixed number of selected clones model were compared with average phenotypic values of selections using different subsamples of data for 8-year height and for 8-year diameter in a radiata pine (Pinusradiata D. Don) clonal experiment. Agreement between predictions and average phenotypic values in both these two comparisons was close.

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