MSU Affiliations

Forest and Wildlife Research Center; College of Forest Resources; Department of Forestry

Item Type

Research Data

Abstract

Sustainably grown feedstocks for bioenergy and bioproducts are important tools to fight climate change, provide ecosystem services, and sequester carbon. Populus species including hybrid poplars have been utilized around the world, and in the southeastern US native eastern cottonwood (P. deltoides) is often favored due to its resistance to stem cankers. However, P. deltoides has historically been grown in single stem production and its relative performance in short rotation coppice production, prevalent in Europe, is not well documented. Therefore, this study’s goals were to evaluate eastern cottonwood and hybrid poplar productivity under a two-year establishment and two-year coppice cycle, analyze biomass chemistry properties, identify drivers of productivity, and select clones suited for marginal vs. optimal sites. We found that P. deltoides × P. maximowiczii (D×M) and P. deltoides × P. deltoides (D×D) grew best in both establishment and coppice rotation with production increasing after coppice. Taxa and clones exhibited few differences in select biomass chemistry properties despite differences in growth rate and stem size. Across years and sites, production was correlated with the soil’s carbon to nitrogen ratio, percentage of sand, and shrink-swell potential of the soil. A D×M clone ‘9709’ tended to perform best on marginal sites and had the highest survival rate after four years. Overall, this research suggests that Populus species can be grown in coppice rotation in the southeastern US with the potential for hybrid poplars to be successful on certain sites in the region although longer term studies are necessary to confirm these results.

Publication Date

2-11-2026

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Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.54718/QMUO5664