Dr Luis Apiolaza
Research Expertise
I am a forester and quantitative geneticist working at the interface between academic and industry. I have designed and/or implemented breeding strategies and evaluation systems for multiple species in three countries.
Current Focus
My research deals with understanding forest variability using quantitative approaches. Some of my specific research interests are:
- Quantitative genetics of very early (less than 5 years) wood properties.
- The design and optimization of breeding strategies, especially on terms of progeny/clonal testing.
- Multivariate analysis of progeny tests, using either REML or Bayesian approaches. This includes the analysis of longitudinal an dspatial data, for which I use mostly ASReml (I authored the ASReml Cookbook), lme4 and, lately, MCMCglmm.
- Large-scale level genetic evaluation (e.g. nationial). What are the compromises that we need to make when working with huge datasets?
- Definition of breeding objectives, especially of forest systems with multiple end-products.
Representative Publications
Apiolaza, L.A. (2009). Very early selection for wood quality: screening for early winners. Annals of Forest Science 66(6): 1
Sinn, D.L., Apiolaza, L.A. and Moltschaniwskyj, N.A. (2006). Genetic analysis and reproductive consequences of squid personality traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 19(5): 1437-47.
Apiolaza, L.A., Raymond, C.A. and Yeo, B. (2005). Genetic variation of physical and chemical wood properties of Eucalyptus globulus. Silvae Genetica 54: 160-66.
Whittock, S.M., Apiolaza, L.A., Kelly, C.M. and Potts, B.M. 92003). Genetic control of coppice and lignotuber development in Eucalyptus globulus. Australian Journal of Botany 51(1): 57-67.
Apiolaza, L.A., Gilmoure, A.R. and Garrick, D.J. (2000). Variance modelling of longitudinal data from progeny tests. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 30: 645-54.