1 Type of the Paper (Article, Review, Communication, etc.) 2 Provenance trials of the Mexican spruces in nursery 3 conditions: Three species endangered by climatic 4 variation 5 José Marcos Torres-Valverde1, José Ciro Hernández-Díaz2, Artemio Carrillo-Parra2, Eduardo 6 Mendoza-Maya3, Christian Wehenkel2* 7 1Maestria Institucional en Ciencias Agropecuarias y Forestales, Universidad Juárez del Estado de Durango, 8 Constitución 404 sur. Zona centro. C.P. 34000. Durango, Dgo. México. E-mail:
[email protected] 9 2Instituto de Silvicultura e Industria de la Madera. Universidad Juárez del Estado de Durango, Constitución 404 10 sur. Zona centro. C.P. 34000. Durango, Dgo. México. E-mail:
[email protected],
[email protected] and 11
[email protected] 12 3Programa Institucional de Doctorado en Ciencias Agropecuarias y Forestales, Universidad Juárez del Estado 13 de Durango, Constitución 404 sur. Zona centro. C.P. 34000. Durango, Dgo. México. E-mail: 14
[email protected] 15 16 17 *Correspondence: *
[email protected]; Tel.: 618-102-08-73 18 Abstract: The three Mexican spruces’ distributions are fragmented, which could lead to 19 phenological, morphological and genetic differentiations, partially caused by local adaptation. In 20 this study we examined the effect that climatic variables have on the survival and growth of 5,641 21 Picea seedlings, coming from eight seed provenances and produced in identical nursery conditions. 22 The respective responses of each species and provenance can be considered as a proxy of the genetic 23 differentiation and adaptation of each population. A cluster analysis revealed: i) significant 24 differences in the genetic quantitative traits among the three Picea species and ii) significant 25 correlations among genetic quantitative traits and climatic factors.