Although Eucalyptus species are indigenous to Australia, they have been successfully cultivated
in South Africa, where they are mainly used in the mining and paper industries. With the
explosion in these industries it has been necessary to increase Eucalyptus plantations, often into
areas which experience frost and chilling temperatures. To combat this, high yielding Eucalyptus
species able to cope with these conditions would be desirable. The ability to rank species
according to their chilling tolerance will enhance decisions as to the suitability of species for use
in the field. To this aim, two biochemical and two biophysical parameters were chosen to
investigate and characterise Eucalyptus nitens, E. smithii, E. macarthurii, E. grandis and E.
grandis x nitens (GNI026). Ranking of these species in terms of chilling tolerance did not appear
possible using the data from the biochemical parameters (proline concentration and glutathione
reductase activity), but the biophysical parameters (fluorescence characteristics and onset of
temperature of melt) gave results comparable to those obtained in field trials using these species.
Fluorescence characteristics were particularly useful in assessing the chilling tolerance of the
species in question. Fluorescence is the recommended technique for further studies as it is
relatively inexpensive, rapid, does not require destructive sampling and can be used in both the
laboratory and field. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, 1993.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ukzn/oai:http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za:10413/8126 |
| Date | January 1993 |
| Creators | Stewart, Gwethlyn Meriel. |
| Contributors | Amory, Alan M. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en_ZA |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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