Effects of drought and salinity on wood and kraft pulps from young plantation eucalypts

The effects of restricted water availability and high soil or water salinity on the growth and pulpwood properties of plantation grown eucalypts were assessed. Tests on irrigated and rainfed Tasmanian Eucalyptus globulus and E. nitens, and on E. occidentalis, E. grandis and E. camaldulensis from South Australia, grown under different irrigation regimes, showed that reduced water availability caused reductions in kraft pulp yield and fibre length but increased wood density, the magnitudes of the changes in wood quality varied according to the severity of the environmental conditions and the tolerance of the individual species, so that if growth was unaffected, differences in pulpwood properties were less likely to be significant. Effects of a similar nature were associated with salinity in irrigated and rainfed plots of plantation grown E. camaldulensis, although in irrigated plots the application of fertilizer had a more significant effect on growth and wood properties than the salinity of the irrigation water.