Abstract
Brosimum utile (Kunth) Oken is a timber-yielding high-potential species with elevated rates of forest harvest at large-scale commercial transport in Colombia. In order to provide silvicultural management elements for natural forests, this study applied dendrochronological technique in a manner that promoted sustainable methods to manage the species. In this study, ten timber dicks using wood-sampling logs from Timbiquí-Cauca were used. The logs’ surfaces were observed and prepared, and their growth rings were marked. By developing cross-dating and x-ray densitometry value analysis, accomplished in ESALQ-USP, Brazil, the study established the chronologies; and as a direct consequence, it obtained a correlation of 0.692. Afterwards, the standard chronology was correlated with rainfalls in a 44-year series. The growth was modeled using the Von Bertalanffy equation, and the current annual increment (CAI) and mean annual increment (MAI) were calculated, whose results were classified into five age-categories, obtaining 6.336 and 5.683 mm.year -1 as final values, respectively.
Highlights
An alternative method to obtain these growth data is ring analysis, which offers advantages over the data obtained from permanent plots, such as age estimates calculated directly instead of based on simulations, obtaining growth rates obtained from representative trees that have satisfactorily reached the canopy, and obtaining growth patterns for the entire lifetime of a tree (Brienen & Zuidema, 2006; Groenendijk, et al.,2017)
The main goal of this research is to perform a dendrochronological study in Brosimum utile from Timbiquí, Cauca, in the Colombian Pacific Coast, based on the analysis of growth rings found in the species, identifying the features of the log’s anatomy associated with ring visibility, recognizing the pattern of periodicity in the formation of growth rings, identifying the environmental signals that stimulate cambium, and modeling the species’s growth, in order to define sustainable management practices
After assessing the growth ring demarcation by direct observation, the analysis of densitometry data suggested that said demarcation does respond to fibrous zones whose density is higher in the observed plane of the wood, and it is classified as latewood with darker colorations
Summary
The intense harvest of resources derived from tropical forests has given rise to a discussion on the implementation of sustainable management systems around the world, whose success is significantly dependent on the knowledge of trees’ growth rates, in addition to the dynamics and productivity of forest mass as a whole (Worbes et al, 2003; Groenendijk, et al.,2017).A very common problem in the forest sector is the lack of information in periodic records to estimate future variables (Polanco, 2004), where obtaining real growth data, necessary to determine felling volumes and cycles, poses a challenge for the sustainable management of natural forests (Sejana et al, 2016; Giraldo & Del Valle, 2011). An alternative method to obtain these growth data is ring analysis, which offers advantages over the data obtained from permanent plots, such as age estimates calculated directly instead of based on simulations, obtaining growth rates obtained from representative trees that have satisfactorily reached the canopy, and obtaining growth patterns for the entire lifetime of a tree (Brienen & Zuidema, 2006; Groenendijk, et al.,2017). As of 2011, Colombia had a forest cover of approximately fifty-nine million hectares, constituting a little over fifty-two percent of the continental surface of the national territory. From this surface, during the period between 2000 and 2011, seventeen million m3 of wood harvested were recorded. Approximately 46% originated in the states under the jurisdiction of the regional autonomous corporations —the governmental
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
