Influence of forest stand characteristics on physical, mechanical properties and chemistry of chestnut wood

Francesco Marini,Elena Kuzminsky,Vittorio Vinciguerra,Swati Tamantini,Florian Zikeli,Piermaria Corona,Maria Chiara Manetti,Manuela Romagnoli,Luigi Portoghesi

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-80558-w

Francesco Marini, Elena Kuzminsky + Show 7 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-80558-w

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Abstract

Site conditions and forest management affect dendrometric parameters of chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) coppices, but there is modest knowledge on the effect of stand dendrometric characters on physical and mechanical wood characteristics. The aim of this study was to verify these relationships in chestnut coppices that were 12–14 years old. Wood density, compression and bending strength, shrinkages were measured on shoots of five different stand in a vulcanic site in Monte Amiata (Central – Italy). Investigated stands differ in number of stools/ha and dominant height, diameter/basal area of the shoots. The main difference in the physical characters among the stands is density. The initial results of the study showed that physical, mechanical wood characters are more dependent by the shoot than by the site. There is a positive relationships between the number of stools/ha and density and a negative one among shoot dominant height and basal area with wood density. Spectroscopic profile by FTIR has not showed relevant differences among the stands. Wood anatomy has showed the breakpoint at cellular level.

Highlights

Site conditions and forest management affect dendrometric parameters of chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) coppices, but there is modest knowledge on the effect of stand dendrometric characters on physical and mechanical wood characteristics
Wood quality can be described by many characteristics, and according to the classical meaning, it is related to the final use of wood[1,2,3], affected by tree phenotype, like stem shape and bearing, stem curvature crown shape development as well as number and size of branches
Stand attributes derived from silviculture operations will play a major role because of changing wood quality, and they could mitigate the impact of climatic changes, affecting the wood-based economy of territories

Summary

Introduction

Site conditions and forest management affect dendrometric parameters of chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) coppices, but there is modest knowledge on the effect of stand dendrometric characters on physical and mechanical wood characteristics. Forest management and site descriptors have proved to impact the most representative physical and mechanical features in wood The research in this field is much more developed in c onifers[13,14,15,16,17,18] than in hardwood species; the related papers on hardwoods consider forest stands both with ring porous species, like oaks[6,19] and diffuse porous rings[20]. Stand attributes derived from silviculture operations will play a major role because of changing wood quality, and they could mitigate the impact of climatic changes, affecting the wood-based economy of territories From this point of view, wood chemical characteristics, both considering wood extractives and cell wall main components, are sometimes under-evaluated compared to the more macroscopic characters (physical and mechanical properties) and will assume a crucial role. Wood chemistry is quite related to climatic changes and the lignification process in chestnut, which has demonstrated to be site- and climate-dependent[28,29], meaning the relationships among climate-stand character, wood chemistry and wood properties have a different interconnection compared to the actual state of the art

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