Abstract
Wood anatomy is a key discipline as a tool for monitoring the global timber trade, particularly for wood listed in protected species conventions such as Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES). One of the main barriers to reducing illegal trafficking of protected species is ensuring that customs officials with appropriate training in wood anatomy are equipped with simple tools, at both the origin and destination of shipments, so they can raise an early warning about wood suspected of contravening international treaties and immediately send samples to a specialised laboratory. This work explains how lenses attached to a smartphone, capable of achieving up to 400× magnification using the phone digital zoom, can be used to distinguish features that are not visible with traditional 10× or 12× lenses, enhancing the capacity to view features not typically observable in the field. In softwoods, for example, this method permits determination of the type of axial parenchyma arrangement, whether there are helical thickenings in axial tracheids and whether axial tracheids have organic deposits or contain alternate polygonal pits, and in the rays, if the tracheids are smooth-walled or dentate and if the cross-field pits are window-like. In hardwoods, it allows verification of the presence of tyloses and deposits in vessels, the type of perforation plates and whether the intervascular pitting is scalariform; in the rays it is possible to differentiate the types of ray cells; and in the axial parenchyma, to determine the presence of oil cells. In addition, unlike macroscopic analysis with a conventional magnifying lens, this type of lens can be used with the appropriate mobile application for the biometry of important elements such as ray height and vessel diameter.
Highlights
From 1990 to 2015 the global forested area decreased from 31.6% to 30.6% [1]
The Global Timber Tracking Network (GTTN), created to promote implementation of innovative tools to identify species, determine the geographical origin of wood and verify trade claims, and the Best Practice Guide for Forensic Timber Identification [5], are two good examples of initiatives designed to combat the trafficking of protected species
The objective of this paper is to provide information about the use of lenses attached to a smartphone that allows up to 400× magnification using the phone digital zoom to complement traditional 10× and 12× magnifying lenses, and to show how this method can facilitate the work of agents responsible for tackling the trade of CITES-listed timbers so that, with appropriate training, they can decide whether or not to send samples to a specialist laboratory
Summary
From 1990 to 2015 the global forested area decreased from 31.6% to 30.6% [1]. Since 1990, 420 million hectares of forest have been lost due to changes in land use, even though the rate of deforestation has decreased in the last three decades. A further complication is that CITES timbers sometimes comes from plantations outside the natural area of distribution of the species, e.g., Swietenia in Asia and Cedrela in Africa, and are not subject to CITES trade restrictions For their trade, clear proof of origin and legality is required. The objective of this paper is to provide information about the use of lenses attached to a smartphone that allows up to 400× magnification using the phone digital zoom to complement traditional 10× and 12× magnifying lenses, and to show how this method can facilitate the work of agents responsible for tackling the trade of CITES-listed timbers so that, with appropriate training, they can decide whether or not to send samples to a specialist laboratory
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