Abstract

The Norway spruce (Picea abies Karst.) is Europe’s most important conifer, both economically and ecologically. In Norway, it dominates regions such as Trøndelag, Eastern Norway, and Helgeland. With climate change leading to warmer and more variable autumn temperatures, understanding how these fluctuations affect the development of frost hardiness in seedlings is critical for successful forestry. This study investigated the autumn frost hardiness of first-year Norway spruce seedlings from four provenances: Undesløs seed orchard (latitude: 60.7° N, elevation: 140 m a.s.l.), L1 (63.3°- 65°N, 0-149 m), M4 (64°- 65°N, 350-449 m), and the long-distance transferred provenance Cv1 (59.1°-60.2°N, 0-149 m). Seedlings were grown under two controlled conditions: (i) a “typical autumn” with decreasing temperatures and (ii) an “atypical autumn” with fluctuating temperatures. In the “typical autumn” setting, day and night temperatures were programmed to decrease gradually over four weeks. In the “atypical autumn” setting, temperatures varied throughout the same period. Frost hardiness was assessed using a -25°C freeze test and quantified via shoot electrolyte leakage (SEL). An index of injury (SEL_diff-25) value ≤ 4% indicated sufficient frost tolerance. Results showed that all seedlings from provenances Cv1, M4, and Undesløs developed sufficient frost tolerance. For provenance L1, 19 seedlings per treatment had SEL_diff-25 values below 4, while one seedling in each treatment showed higher values (5.5 and 5.1, respectively). Negative SEL_diff-25 values were observed in some seedlings across all provenances, particularly from Undesløs. The results demonstrate that first-year Norway spruce seedlings can successfully develop frost hardiness under both decreasing and fluctuating autumn temperature regimes. These findings highlight the potential for nursery practices to replicate natural climatic patterns, thereby enhancing seedling frost resilience. However, differences between controlled growth chamber conditions and natural nursery environments must be considered when applying these results to practical forestry. Overall, this study provides valuable insights into the variability in frost hardiness often observed in field trials involving young Norway spruce.

  Keywords

Apical Shoot, Climatic Conditions, Cold Hardiness, Conifers, Electrolyte Leakage, Freeze-test, Freezing Tolerance, Picea abies

Authors’ Info

Paper Info

Citation

Ahuja I, Fløistad IS, Grande PO, Tyldum JM, Edvardsen ØM, Steffenrem A (2026). Frost hardening in seedlings of four provenances of Norway spruce in response to simulated autumn conditions with decreasing and fluctuating temperatures. iForest 19: 141-148. - doi: 10.3832/ifor5041-019

Academic Editor

Marco Borghetti

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© SISEF - The Italian Society of Silviculture and Forest Ecology 2026

  Open Access

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

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