Feedback by Jiří Chuchlík

By: Jiří Chuchlík

I participated in the Third EVOLTREE/FORGENIUS Conference on the Integrative Diversity of Forest Ecosystems, held from November 18 to 21, 2025, at the CSIC in Madrid. The program covered five thematic sessions, ranging from new tools for translating science into practice to breeding, conservation, and phenotypic responses to global change pressures.
I presented my work “From Subjective to Objective Bud-burst Assessment: CNN-Assisted RGB Imaging in Norway Spruce Seed Orchard” in Session 4, which focused on breeding for resilience and novel phenotyping and genomic tools. My contribution introduced a deep-learning-based phenotyping pipeline that fosters subjective bud-burst scoring with a reproducible, high-throughput method integrating RGB imaging and a YOLOv7 convolutional neural network. The approach showed strong correspondence with traditional scoring and improved heritability estimates, highlighting its potential for climate-adaptation-oriented breeding programs. Presenting these results triggered valuable discussions on image-based trait extraction, and the integration of machine-learning methods into operational breeding.
The event allowed me to connect with researchers working on quantitative genetics, high-throughput phenotyping, and adaptive forest management, many of whom provided valuable feedback for the further development of my phenotyping pipeline.
Overall, participating in this conference significantly strengthened my scientific network and deepened my understanding of ongoing European research initiatives that link advanced phenotyping, genomics, and forest resilience. I am grateful to EVOLTREE for supporting my participation, and I agree that this report and accompanying photos may be published on the EVOLTREE website.