Wood Variability in Mature Longleaf Pine: Differences Related to Cardinal Direction for a Softwood in a Humid Subtropical Climate

Authors

  • Thomas L Eberhardt USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory
  • Chi-Leung So School of Renewable Resources, LSU AgCenter
  • Daniel L Leduc USDA Forest Service, Southern Research Station

Keywords:

environmental impact, longleaf pine, radial profile, wood properties, wood quality

Abstract

Mature longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) trees were harvested to compare wood property data for opposing bark-to-pith wood strips representing the northern and southern cardinal (or compass) directions. For each of the ten 70-yr-old trees used in the study,wood property datawere compared at breast height (BH) and three relative heights: one-quarter height (1Q), midheight (MID), and three-quarter height (3Q). Scanning of the specimens by X-ray densitometry gave specific gravity (SG) profiles that were used to determine wood properties for comparison. No significant differences were determined for wood property data at BH, MID, or 3Q. However, data at 1Q showed higher ring SG (p . 0.043) and percent latewood (p . 0.018) for the northern side, although no differences were observed in the earlywood or latewood SG. This indicated that the higher ring SG for the northern direction results from a greater proportion of latewood. Partitioning the data into estimated juvenile-transition wood and mature wood zones demonstrated that the greater ring SGand percent latewood values in the northern direction occurredwithin the mature wood zone. Findings presented herein appear to provide the first demonstration of variation in wood properties with respect to cardinal direction for a pine species growing in a humid subtropical climate.



 

References

Antony F, Schimleck LR, Daniels RF (2012) A comparison of the earlywood-latewood demarcation methods - A case study in loblolly pine. IAWA J 33(2):187-195.

Antony F, Schimleck LR, Daniels RF, Clark III A, Borders BE, Kane MB, Burkhart HE (2015) Whole-tree bark and wood properties of loblolly pine from intensively managed plantations. Forest Sci 61(1):55-66.

Burdon RD, Kibblewhite RP, Walker JCF, Megraw RA, Evans R, Cown DR (2004) Juvenile versus mature wood: A new concept, orthogonal to corewood versus outerwood, with special reference to Pinus radiata and Pinus taeda. Forest Sci 50(4):399-415.

Butler MA, Dahlen J, Daniels RF, Eberhardt TL, Antony F (2016) Bending strength and stiffness of loblolly pine lumber from intensively managed stands located on the Georgia Lower Coastal Plain. Euro J Wood Wood Prod 74:91-100.

Clark III A, Daniels RF, Jordan L (2006) Juvenile/mature wood transition in loblolly pine as defined by annual ring specific gravity, proportion of latewood, and microfibril angle. Wood Fiber Sci 38(2):292-299.

Clark III A, Saucier JR (1991) Influence of initial planting density, geographic location, and species on juvenile wood formation in southern pine. Georgia Forest Research Paper 85. 13 pp.

Eberhardt TL (2013) Longleaf pine inner bark and outer bark thicknesses: Measurement and relevance. South J Appl Forest 37(3):177-180.

Eberhardt TL (2015) Thickness and roughness measurements for air-dried longleaf pine bark. Pages 374-379 in AG Holley, KF Connor, and JD Haywood, eds. Proc 17th Southern Silvicultural Res Conf, e-Gen Tech Rep No 203. USDA For Serv, Southern Research Station, Asheville, NC.

Eberhardt TL, Dahlen J, Schimleck L (2017) Species comparison of the physical properties of loblolly and slash pine wood and bark. Can J Forest Res 47:1495-1505.

Eberhardt TL, Samuelson LJ (2015) Collection of wood quality data by X-ray densitometry: A case study with three southern pines. Wood Sci Technol 49:739-753.

Fernow BE (1896) Southern pine mechanical and physical properties. US Dept. Agric., Division of Forestry, Circular No. 12, 19 pp.

Gonzalez-Benecke CA, Martin TA, Clark A, Peter GF (2010) Water availability and genetic effects of wood properties of loblolly pine (Pinus taeda). Tree Physiol 40:2265-2277.

Gough CM, Seiler JM, Johnsen KH, Sampson DA (2004) Seasonal photosynthesis in fertilized and non-fertilized loblolly pine. Forest Sci 50:1-9.

Groom L, Mott L, Shaler S (2002a) Mechanical properties of individual southern pine fibers. Part I. Determination and variability of stress-strain curves with respect to tree height and juvenility. Wood Fiber Sci 34(1):14-27.

Groom L, Shaler S, Mott L (2002b) Mechanical properties of individual southern pine fibers. Part III. Global relationships between fiber properties and fiber location within an individual tree. Wood Fiber Sci 34(23):238-250.

Guyot A, Ostergaard KT, Lenkopaine M, Fan J, Lockington DA (2013) Using electrical resistivity tomography to differentiate sapwood from heartwood: Application to conifers. Tree Physiol 33:187-194.

Jacquin P, Longuetaud F, Leban J-M, Mothe F (2017) X-ray microdensitometry of wood: A review of existing principles and devices. Dendrochonologia 42:42-50.

Jokela EJ, Dougherty PM, Martin TA (2004) Production dynamics of intensively managed loblolly pine stands in the southern United States: A synthesis of seven long-term experiments. Forest Ecol Manage 192(1):117-130.

Jordan L, Clark A, Schimleck LR, Hall DB, Daniels RF (2008) Regional variation in wood specific gravity of planted loblolly pine in the United States. Can J For Res 38:698-710.

Kibblewhite RP (1999) Designer fibres for improved papers through exploiting genetic variation in wood microstructure. Appita J 52(6):429-435.

Kloiber M, Tippner J, Praus L, Hrivnák J (2012) Experimental verification of a new tool for wood mechanical resistance measurement. Wood Res-Slovakia 57(3):383-398.

Koubaa A, Zhang SYT, Makni S (2002) Defining the transition from earlywood to latewood in black spruce based on intra-ring wood density profiles from X-ray densitometry. Ann Forest Sci 59:511-518.

Landers JL, Van Lear DH, Boyer WD (1995) The longleaf pine forests of the Southeast: Requiem or renaissance. J Forest 93(11):39-44.

Lukšáek J, Zeidler A, Barcik S (2012) Shrinkage of grand fir wood and its variability within the stem. Drvna Industrija 63(2):121-128.

Mäkinen H (1998) Effect of thinning and natural variation in bole roundness in Scots pine (Pinus Sylvestris L.). Forest Ecol Manage 107:231-239.

Mäkinen H, Vanninen P (1999) Effect of sample selection on the environmental signal derived from tree-ring series. Forest Ecol Manage 113:83-89.

Mansfield SD, Parish R, Di Lucca CM, Goudie JW, Kang K-Y, Ott PK (2009) Revisiting the transition between juvenile and mature wood: A comparison of fibre length, microfibril angle and relative wood density in lodgepole pine. Holzforschung 63:449-456.

Mott L, Groom L, Shaler S (2002) Mechanical properties of individual southern pine fibers. Part II. Comparison of earlywood and latewood fibers with respect to tree height and juvenility. Wood Fiber Sci 34(2):221-237.

Nix LE, Villiers K (1985) Tracheid differentiation in southern pines during the dormant season. Wood Fiber Sci 17:397-403.

Olesen PO (1973) The influence of the compass direction on the basic density of Norway spruce (Picea abies L.) and its importance for sampling for estimating the genetic value of plus trees. For. Tree Impr. 6, Hørsholm Arboretet, Akademisk Forlag, Denmark, 58 pp.

Reinsch CH (1967) Smoothing by spline functions. Numer Math 10:177-183.

Samuelson LJ, Eberhardt TL, Bartkowiak SM, Johnsen KH (2013) Relationships between climate, radial growth, and wood properties of mature loblolly pine in Hawaii, and a northern and southern site in the southeastern United States. Forest Ecol Manage 310:786-795.

Schultz RP (1999) Loblolly - the pine for the twenty-first century. New Forest 17:71-78.

Shiver BD, Rheney JW, Hitch KL (2000) Loblolly pine outperforms slash pine in Southeastern Georgia and Northern Florida. South J Appl Forest 24(1):31-36.

So C-L, Eberhardt TL, Leduc D (2018) Within-tree variability in wood quality parameters for mature longleaf pine. In Press in Proc. 18th Southern Silvicultural Res. Conf. USDA For. Serv., Southern Research Station, Asheville, NC.

Spurr SH, Hsiung W-Y (1954) Growth rate and specific gravity in conifers. J Forest 52:191-200.

Tasissa, G., H.E. Burkhardt. 1998. Modeling thinning effects on ring specific gravity of loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.). Forest Sci 44(2):212-223.

Timell TE. 1986. Compression Wood in Gymnosperms. Volumes 1-3. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Germany. 2150 pp.

Tippner J, Hrivnak J, Kloiber M (2016) Acoustic tests of wood. BioResources 11(1):503-518.

Tong QJ, Zhang SY (2008) Stem form variation in the natural stands of major commercial softwoods in eastern Canada. Forest Ecol Manage 256:1303-1310.

Van Lear DH, Carroll WD, Kapeluck PR, Johnson R (2005) History and restoration of the longleaf pine-grassland ecosystem: Implications for a species at risk. Forest Ecol Manage 211:150-165.

Via BK, Shupe TF, Groom LH, Stine M, So C-L (2003) Multivariate modelling of density, strength, and stiffness from near infrared spectra for mature, juvenile and pith wood of longleaf pine (Pinus palustris). J Near Infrared Spectr 11:365-378.

Via BK, So C-L, Shupe TF, Groom LH, Wikaira J (2009) Mechanical response of longleaf pine to variation in microfibril angle, chemistry associated wavelengths, density, and radial position. Compos Part A-Appl S 40:60-65.

Wear DN, Greis JG (2012) The Southern Forest Futures Project: Summary Report. Gen. Tech. Rep. No. 168. USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station, Asheville, N.C.

Xiang W, Leitch M, Auty D, Duchateau E, Achim A (2014) Radial trends in black spruce wood density can show and age- and growth-related decline. Ann Forest Sci 71:603-615.

Zeidler A, Šedivka P (2015) Influence of selected factors on wood density variability in grand fir (Abies grandis/Douglas/Lindl.). Wood Res-Slovakia 60(1):33-44.

Zobel B, Blair R (1976) Wood and pulp properties of juvenile wood and topwood of the southern pine. Appl Polym Symp 28:421-433.

Zobel BJ, Sprague JR (1998) Juvenile Wood in Forest Trees. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Germany. 300 p.

Zobel BJ, van Buijtenen JP (1989) Wood Variation: Its Causes and Control. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Germany. 363 p.

Downloads

Published

2018-07-20

Issue

Vol. 50 No. 3 (2018)

Section

Research Contributions

License

The copyright of an article published in Wood and Fiber Science is transferred to the Society of Wood Science and Technology (for U. S. Government employees: to the extent transferable), effective if and when the article is accepted for publication. This transfer grants the Society of Wood Science and Technology permission to republish all or any part of the article in any form, e.g., reprints for sale, microfiche, proceedings, etc. However, the authors reserve the following as set forth in the Copyright Law:

1. All proprietary rights other than copyright, such as patent rights.

2. The right to grant or refuse permission to third parties to republish all or part of the article or translations thereof. In the case of whole articles, such third parties must obtain Society of Wood Science and Technology written permission as well. However, the Society may grant rights with respect to Journal issues as a whole.

3. The right to use all or part of this article in future works of their own, such as lectures, press releases, reviews, text books, or reprint books.