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Vertical variations in wood basic density for two softwood species

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Abstract

Studies on wood basic density (BD) vertical variations become essential to predict more accurately the within-stem distributions of biomass and wood quality in the forest resource. The vertical variation of wood BD in the stem has been little studied until now, most BD studies being based on measurements taken at breast height. The main objective of this work was to observe and to understand the patterns of vertical BD variation within stems in relation to classical dendrometric variables and to propose relevant equation forms for future modelling. Two softwood species were studied: Abies alba and Pseudotsuga menziesii. Contrasted thinning intensities were studied including strongly thinned plots versus control plots without thinning. BD was most of the time highest at the base of the tree for both species. Then, after a strong decrease from the base of the tree, an increase in BD was often observed towards the top of the tree especially for A. alba. The variation in BD with height was stronger for the unthinned plots than for the heavily thinned ones of A. alba. The opposite was observed for Ps. menziesii. The modulation of growth rate and tree size through thinning intensities modifies the observed vertical variations in BD. Two types of biexponential models were proposed to describe BD variations. The first model used the height in the stem and classical easily-measurable tree variables as inputs, the other one additionally used BD at breast height (BD130). The relative RMSE of BD for A. alba and Ps. menziesii were 9.9% and 8.1%, respectively, with the model without BD130 and 7.6% and 5.9%, respectively, with the model including BD130.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Change history

Notes

  1. Shade-tolerance score and standard deviation in brackets. Tolerance scores range from 0 (no tolerance) to 5 (maximal tolerance).

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Acknowledgements

A large part of the sampling used in this study was collected in the experimental network of Douglas stands managed by the GIS Coop (https://www6.inrae.fr/giscoop (Seynave et al. 2018)). The authors would like to thank SILVATECH (Silvatech, INRAE, 2018. Structural and functional analysis of tree and wood Facility, doi: 10.15454/1.5572400113627854E12) from UMR 1434 SILVA, 1136 IAM, 1138 BEF and 4370 EA LERMAB EEF research center INRA Nancy-Lorraine for the realization of X-ray tomograph observations. SILVATECH facility is supported by the French National Research Agency through the Laboratory of Excellence ARBRE (ANR-11-LABX-0002-01).

We would like to thank Vincent Rousselet, Frédéric Bordat, Loïc Dailly and Adrien Contini for the sampling in the forest and measurements at the laboratory and Charline Mola for the CT scanner acquisitions. We are grateful to Adeline Motz and Daniel Rittié for the rings measures.

Funding

The results presented in this article come from the thesis work of Antoine Billard. This thesis was co-financed by ADEME (Agency for ecological transition) and the Grand-Est region. It was carried out as part of the ExtraFor_Est research project (Extractable chemical components from the forests of eastern France), itself supported by the European Union within the framework of the operational program ERDF-ESF Lorraine and Massif des Vosges 2014-2020 and the French Ministry of Agriculture and Agri-Food (MAA). This ExtraForest_Est project was supervised by the research unit SILVA in INRAE-Grand-Est Nancy supported by a grant overseen by the French National Research Agency (ANR) as part of the Investissements d'Avenir program (ANR-11-LABX- 0002-01, Lab of Excellence TREE).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université de Lorraine, AgroParisTech, INRAE, Silva, 54000, Nancy, France

    Antoine Billard, Rodolphe Bauer, Frédéric Mothe, Francis Colin & Fleur Longuetaud

  2. Agence de la transition écologique, 20 Avenue du Grésillé, BP 90406 49004, Angers Cedex 01, France

    Antoine Billard

  3. RDI, ONF, 39100, Dole, France

    Christine Deleuze

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  1. Antoine Billard
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Billard, A., Bauer, R., Mothe, F. et al. Vertical variations in wood basic density for two softwood species. Eur J Forest Res 140, 1401–1416 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-021-01402-y

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