GROWTH AND PHYSIOLOGICAL TRAITS OF EUCALYPT CLONES UNDER DIFFERENTS WATER REGIMES

The aims of this work were to evaluate the growth and physiological traits of eucalypt clones submitted to four irrigation regimes, in a greenhouse, and to subsidiary breeding programs to resistance to water stress. The experiment was carried out in a randomized block design, and a factorial scheme 18 x 4 (18 clones and four irrigation regimes: daily; every two days; every four days; every six days) with four replications during 73 days. It was evaluated the relative growth rate at height, root collar diameter, number of leaves, leaf area, dry matter of the leaves, stem and roots, the root-shoot ratio, the net photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, transpiration and leaf water potential. The physiological evaluations were performed one day before and one day after the irrigation in each treatment. All the evaluated characters presented significant difference among genotypes and water regimes. The estimates of genotypic determination coefficient presented values over 0.86 for growth traits and between 0.46 and 0.84 for physiological ones. The genotypes generally presented reduction in their traits as the frequency of irrigation was decreased, although in variable proportions among them. It was possible to identify promising genotypes for breeding aiming the resistance to drought stress.