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A Tribute: Robert John van den Driessche, Tree Physiologist, 1933-2018

Journal: Canadian Journal of Forest Research

Manuscript ID cjfr-2018-0351

Manuscript Type: Tribute

Date Submitted by the Author: 27-Aug-2018

Complete List of Authors: Hawkins, Barbara; University of Victoria

Keyword: tree physiology, tree nutritition, forest regeneration, forest nursery practise, obituary

Is the invited manuscript for consideration in a Special

Issue? :Not applicable (regular submission)

https://mc06.manuscriptcentral.com/cjfr-pubs

Canadian Journal of Forest Research

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1 A Tribute: Robert John van den Driessche, Tree Physiologist, 1933-2018

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5 B.J. Hawkins

6 Centre for Forest Biology, University of Victoria, PO Box 3020, STN CSC, Victoria, B.C.

7 Canada, V8W 3N5

8 Ph: 250-721-7117

9 Email: [email protected]

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32 Abstract:

33 Robert (Bob) John van den Driessche passed away on July 19, 2018 leaving a legacy of research

34 in tree physiology and nutrition that will continue to influence forest regeneration in British

35 Columbia for years to come. This tribute outlines Bob’s career in the context of forest history in

36 the province, and the many significant contributions Bob made to our understanding of conifer

37 seedling nutrition and stress tolerance.

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40 Keywords:

41 Tree physiology, tree nutrition, forest regeneration, forest nursery practice, obituary

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43 Article:

44 Robert John van den Driessche was born in Worcestershire, England in 1933. He attended

45 Rendcomb College, a progressive boarding school for boys, in Gloucestershire from 1945-1952,

46 and after National Service in the Suez Canal zone in Egypt, spent three years at the University

47 College of North Wales, Bangor, graduating with a B.Sc. in Forestry in 1957. He then moved to

48 the University of Toronto and obtained a M.Sc.F. in 1958 under the co-supervision of Profs. Ken

49 Armson (Order of Canada) and Jack Farrar. Robert conducted his PhD work in tree seedling

50 physiology with Prof. Philip Wareing, OBE, FRS at the University College of Wales,

51 Aberystwyth during a two-year leave from the B.C. Forest Service, and obtained his doctorate in

52 1965.

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54 Robert (“Bob”, to his colleagues) joined the B.C. Forest Service Research Division in 1959 as a

55 nursery practice research officer, and was the second research scientist in Canada to work full-

56 time on stock production (Glerum 1990). Bob began his career working out of the Mesachie

57 Lake Research Station, an active centre of forest research. His appointment was part of a wave of

58 new personnel hired after the 1956 Sloan Report criticized the B.C. government for its poor

59 performance in forest regeneration. In his Royal Commission Report, the Honourable Gordon

60 Sloan stated that the 7 million trees planted on the coast in 1955 were totally inadequate (Sloan

61 1956). Furthermore, almost all of the trees planted at that time were a single species, Douglas-fir.

62 Sloan suggested an annual planting program of 38.4 million seedlings was required to meet

63 reforestation needs and to reclaim the backlog NSR (not satisfactorily restocked land) on the

64 coast (Brown 1995). Forestry research had been hard hit by the depression and by World War II,

65 and there were few resources allocated to forest regeneration challenges (Schmidt and Parminter

66 2006). To address the concerns, the B.C. Forest Service expanded research in forest regeneration

67 and tree breeding in the late 1950s (Schmidt and Parminter 2006) and Bob was recruited as part

68 of that expansion.

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70 Bob and his colleagues faced a considerable challenge. Despite Sloan’s objective of 38.4 million

71 seedlings, by 1962, on average only 6.9 million 2-0 Douglas-fir seedlings were grown each year

72 (van den Driessche 1963), and survival was poor. All planting stock was bareroot stock, and

73 seedling size and quality were highly variable (van den Driessche 1963). Nursery locations were

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74 not chosen for soil quality, and the lack of soil nutrients, poor drainage and unsuitable soil pH

75 negatively affected seedling quality (B. Devitt, Aug. 7, 2018, pers. comm.). Bob tackled the

76 challenge head-on, preparing a report on optimal sowing times in 1962 (van den Driessche

77 1962), and publishing his first manuscript on nursery experiments with Douglas-fir in 1963 (van

78 den Driessche 1963). This paper outlined improved sowing density and fertilization practises,

79 leading to increased seedling size - themes that resonated throughout his work for five decades.

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81 Seedling production in the province increased slowly in the early 1960s, with only 18 million

82 seedlings grown by 1965. That year, an annual target of 75 million seedlings was adopted

83 (Brown 1995). In response, Bob accelerated his work to improve nutrient availability in nurseries

84 (van den Driessche and Wareing 1966, van den Driessche 1968), and by 1969, he had acquired a

85 sufficient body of knowledge to publish the first British Columbia Forest Nursery Handbook

86 (van den Driessche 1969). This publication characterized Bob’s approach to practical problems,

87 where he designed experiments based on a thorough understanding of the literature and sought to

88 understand the physiological mechanisms underlying seedling response to experimental

89 treatments. The results were recommendations based on physiological principles, backed up by

90 experiments and scientific literature, for all aspects of seedling production - from stratification

91 and sowing through to dormancy and lifting. This handbook led the field in North America for

92 many years and was not supplanted until the USDA Forest Nursery Manual: Production of

93 Bareroot Seedlings was published in 1984, in which Bob wrote the chapter on soil fertility (van

94 den Driessche 1984a).

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96 Bob’s early work focused primarily on improving the quality of bareroot seedlings, particularly

97 Douglas-fir and Sitka spruce. By 1970, however, there was a growing appreciation that bareroot

98 stock production could not meet the annual goal of 75 million seedlings and a move to container

99 stock was advocated (Robinson 1970). Collaborative studies between the B.C. and Canadian

100 Forest Services investigated the “BC/CFS STYROBLOCK” system (Robinson 1970). Growing

101 tree seedlings in containers presented very different issues from field-grown bareroot stock,

102 including restricted rooting volume and inconsistency of nutrient supply. Bob’s was amongst the

103 earliest published research on container seedling nutrition (Brix and van den Driessche 1974),

104 which was, in part, based on his earlier work, and he continued to study and compare nursery

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105 practises for both container and bareroot stock over the ensuing years (e.g. van den Driessche

106 1982, 1988a, 1992). In 1970, the Forest Service Research Branch Laboratory was constructed on

107 North Rd. in Saanich, including greenhouse and laboratory facilities and a plant physiology

108 nursery (Schmidt and Parminter 2006) and Bob was active in the design and utilization of this

109 facility.

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111 Bob is best known for his extensive work on tree seedling nutrition. Nitrogen, phosphorus, and

112 potassium are the primary elements applied by all nurseries, and Bob studied all aspects of

113 frequency and rate of application (e.g. van den Driessche 1984a, 1984b, 1989), and formulation

114 of these elements (e.g. van den Driessche 1988a) for tree seedling crops grown in B.C. Bob

115 investigated optimal foliar concentrations for most essential mineral elements to maximize

116 seedling growth and survival (van den Driessche 1974, 1980,1988b, 1989) and his most highly

117 cited paper is on the prediction of mineral nutrient status of trees by foliar analysis (van den

118 Driessche 1974). He published more than 25 papers on tree nutrition and fertilization, and

119 contributed a chapter on nutrient storage and retranslocation in “Nutrition of Plantation Forests”

120 (Bowen and Nambiar 1984). His interest in the subject culminated in his editorship of the book

121 “Mineral Nutrition of Conifer Seedlings” (van den Driessche 1991). This text presented the most

122 current research in the field, including several chapters by Bob and co-authors (including his

123 wife, Pauline, an internationally renowned mathematician).

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125 A concern often related to nursery practises is the effect fertilization may have on seedling

126 phenology, cold hardiness and drought hardiness. Bob studied the interactions of fertilization,

127 and drought and cold tolerance, demonstrating that N and P fertilization had no significant effect

128 on cold hardiness (van den Driessche 1980) when the fertilization regime was well synchronized

129 with the phenological development of the seedlings (van den Driessche 1984a). Bob published

130 more than 15 papers on seedling drought and cold tolerance, including experiments testing new

131 methods of cold hardiness assessment (van den Driessche 1973, 1976).

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133 In addition to seedling nutrition and fertilization, Bob continued his work on bareroot production

134 practices, including work on root wrenching, several papers on seedbed and growing density, and

135 studies on the timing of lifting. He also published several papers on the physiology of rooted

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136 cuttings, the effects of soil compaction and a number of papers on basic processes and

137 mechanisms of seedling growth. The foresight of the B.C. Forest Service to combine the

138 knowledge of seedling physiology and nursery cultural practices gained through Bob’s work and

139 that of others, with an aggressive program of tree improvement contributed to the high seedling

140 survival (> 85%, Brown 1995) and growth rates achieved in B.C. by the late 1980s.

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142 In 1997, Bob retired from his position of Senior Tree Physiologist with the Ministry of Forests,

143 only to turn to greener research fields. He founded New Dendrology Inc. and continued to work

144 as an independent research consultant, mainly with poplar in Alberta. Bob wrote or co-authored

145 12 papers between 1997 and 2008 on the physiology and nutrition of poplars. During that time,

146 he was an Associate Editor for the journal New Forests and continued his teaching and service

147 contributions to the University of Victoria Centre for Forest Biology until 2013.

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149 Bob was a pioneer in the field of tree physiology, particularly tree seedling nutrition. The volume

150 of his work is impressive, with over 65 papers in the primary literature,10 government reports

151 (more than half being single-author contributions), plus symposium proceedings. Bob was

152 internationally respected and his impact is clearly evident, with more than 1230 articles by other

153 authors citing his work (Web of Science, Aug. 8, 2018). His papers are notable for their

154 thoroughness and attention to detail, their strong experimental design (a feature about which he

155 was adamant) and for their practical application to the forest nursery industry. As a B.C.

156 Registered Professional Forester, Bob was keenly aware of the applied nature of his work, but

157 his interest in the physiological mechanisms underlying seedling response to experimental

158 treatments was consistently demonstrated. His work is an outstanding example of how an

159 understanding of basic science can improve solutions to practical problems and continue to be

160 applied over decades. Applied work of this nature is unlikely to be conducted in academia, but is

161 too academic for industry and epitomizes the value of investment in long-term government

162 research programs. Bob’s dedication to his work and to improving forest regeneration success

163 shine through his impressive body of literature. The testament to his efforts is the ranks of young

164 trees growing vigorously across the green slopes of coastal British Columbia.

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168 Acknowledgements:

169 With thanks to the colleagues and family members who provided information, recollections and

170 suggestions for this tribute, including Mr. Bruce Devitt, Mr. Ev Van Eerden, Dr. Kevin Brown,

171 Dr. Sylvia L’Hirondelle and Dr. Pauline van den Driessche.

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173 Photo credit: Dr. Sylvia L’Hirondelle174

175 References:

176 Brix, H., and van den Driessche, R. 1974. Mineral nutrition of container-grown tree seedlings. In

177 Proceedings of the North American Containerized Forest Tree Seedling Symposium,

178 Denver, CO., 26-29 August 1974. Edited by R.W. Tinus, W.I. Stein, and W.E. Balmer.

179 Great Plains Agricultural Council, Publication 68, U.S. Government Print Office,

180 Washington, DC. pp. 77 - 94.

181 Bowen, G.D. and Nambiar, E.K.S. 1984. Nutrition of Plantation Forests. Academic Press,

182 London, UK. pp. 181-209.

183 Brown, R.G. 1995. Public influence on reforestation in British Columbia. Third Global

184 Conference on Paper & the Environment, London, England, March, 1995.

185 https://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfp/publications/00134/index.htm

186 Glerum, C. 1990. Stock production research in Canada: a historical perspective. For. Chron. 66:

187 103-111.

188 Robinson, E.W. 1970. Plans and progress of artificial regeneration in British Columbia. For.

189 Chron. 46: 479-481.

190 Schmidt, R.L. and Parminter, J. 2006. An Early History of the Research Branch, British

191 Columbia Ministry of Forests and Range. B.C. Min. For., Res. Br., Victoria, B.C. Tech.

192 Rep. 036.

193 Sloan, G. 1956. The Forest Resources of British Columbia: Report of the Commissioner. Queen's

194 Printer, Victoria, B.C. Vol 1. 416p.

195 van den Driessche, R. 1962. Continuous autumn and spring sowing of Douglas-fir. Report on

196 E.P. 561. Forest Science Program Reports on Experimental Projects. B.C. Ministry of

197 Forests. https://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfd/library/experimental_projects.htm

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198 van den Driessche, R. 1963. Nursery experiments with Douglas fir. Comm. For. Rev. 42: 242-

199 van den Driessche, R. 1968. A comparison of growth responses of Douglas fir and Sitka spruce

200 to different nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium levels in sand culture. Can. J. Bot. 46:

201 531-537.

202 van den Driessche, R. 1969. Forest nursery handbook. B.C. For. Serv., Victoria, B.C. Res. Note

203 48. 44 p.

204 van den Driessche, R. 1973. Prediction of frost hardiness in Douglasf ir seedlings by measuring

205 electrical impedance in stems at different frequencies. Can. J. For. Res. 3: 256-264.

206 van den Driessche, R. 1974. Prediction of mineral nutrient status of trees by foliar analysis. Bot.

207 Rev. 40: 347-394.

208 van den Driessche, R. 1976. Prediction of cold hardiness in Douglas-fir seedlings by index of

209 injury and conductivity methods. Can. J. For. Res. 6: 51 1-51 5.

210 van den Driessche, R. 1980. Effects of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilization on Douglas-fir

211 nursery growth and survival after outplanting. Can. J. For. Res. 10: 65-70.

212 van den Driessche R. 1982. Early growth and survival of interior spruce stock. British Columbia

213 Ministry of Forests Research. Progress report EP 859.03

214 van den Driessche, R. 1984a. Soil fertility in forest nurseries. In Forest nursery manual:

215 production of bareroot seedlings. Edited by M.L. Duryea and T.D. Landis. Oreg. State

216 Univ., For. Res. Lab. Martinus Nijhoff/ Dr. W. Junk Publishers. Corvallis, OR., pp. 63-

217 74.

218 van den Driessche, R. 1984b. Seedling spacing in the nursery in relation to growth, yield, and

219 performance of stock. For. Chron. 60: 345-355.

220 van den Driessche, R. 1988a. Response of Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco)

221 to some different fertilizers applied at planting. New For. 2: 89-110.

222 van den Driessche, R. 1988b. Seedlings using fertilizers of different solubilities and application

223 time, and their forest growth. Can. J. For. Res. 18: 172-180.

224 van den Driessche, R. 1989. Nutrient deficiency symptoms in container-grown Douglas-fir and

225 white spruce seedlings. FRDA Report 100. Pacific Forestry Centre and BC Ministry of

226 Forests, Victoria, B.C.

227 van den Driessche R. 1991. Mineral Nutrition of Conifer Seedlings. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL.

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228 van den Driessche R. 1992. Absolute and relative growth of Douglas-fir seedlings of different

229 sizes. Tree Physiol. 10: 141–152.

230 van den Driessche, R., and Wareing, P.F. 1966. Nutrient supply, dry-matter production and

231 nutrient uptake of forest tree seedlings. Ann. Bot. N.S. 30: 657-672.

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Robert van den Driessche in the field

76x101mm (300 x 300 DPI)

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