Age-related variation in genetic control of height growth in Douglas-fir

Summary The development of genetic variances in height growth of Douglas-fir over a 53-year period is analyzed and found to fall into three periods. In the juvenile period, variances in environmental error increase logarithmically, genetic variance within populations exists at moderate levels, and variance among populations is low but increasing. In the early reproductive period, the response to environmental sources of error variance is restricted, genetic variance within populations disappears, and populational differences strongly emerge but do not increase as expected. In the later period, environmental error again increases rapidly, but genetic variance within populations does not reappear and population differences are maintained at about the same level as established in the early reproductive period. The change between the juvenile and early reproductive periods is perhaps associated with the onset of ecological dominance and significant allocations of energy to reproduction.This paper is published with the approval of the Director of Research, North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station, as No. 3361 of the Journal Series. The computing services in this project were supported by NIH Grant GM-11 546, held by the Institute of Statistics, North Carolina State University at Raleigh.