Wood Density of Ten Native Trees and Shrubs and Its Possible Relation with a Few Wood Chemical Compositions

Ratikanta Maiti,Aruna Kumari,Humberto Gonzalez Rodriguez

doi:10.4236/ajps.2016.78114

Ratikanta Maiti, Aruna Kumari + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.4236/ajps.2016.78114

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Abstract

The present study was undertaken in Forest Science Faculty, Universidad de Nuevo Leon, Mexico on variability of Wood density and its possible relation to few wood chemical composition and wood fiber cell structure anatomy. The results reveal that among 10 specie studied, there exist a large variation in wood density (0.51 to 1.09), and few wood chemical composition such % carbon (37.14 to 44.07), nitrogen (9.18 to 19.22), sulphur (31.45 to 33/82), lignin (15/28 to 24.35), hemicellulose (19.94 to 27.36%), and % cellulose (33.69 to 45.92). In general, though there was no clear relationship between wood density and other chemical composition of wood. It was observed that the species having moderate to high wood density contained >40% carbon, >30% sulphur and >40% cellulose and more or less 20% lignin. It seems that carbon, sulphur, cellulose and lignin content contribute to greater density. The wood fiber cell with wall lignification seems to be related to higher wood density.

Highlights

Wood density is an important wood quality parameter in carbon cycle research and offers resistance in the trees against wind, storms, cavitation of xylem vessels, and other environmental stresses
It is observed that among 9 species studied there existed a large variation in wood density which varied from (0.51 to 1.09), % carbón (37.14 to 44.07), nitrogen (9.18 to 19.22), sulphur (31.04 to 33.82), lignin (15.28 to 24.35), hemicellulose (19.94 to 27.36%), and % cellulose (33.69 to 45.92)
We observed the species having moderate to high wood density contained >40% carbón, >30% sulphur and >40% cellulose and more or less 20% lignin

Summary

Introduction

Wood density is an important wood quality parameter in carbon cycle research and offers resistance in the trees against wind, storms, cavitation of xylem vessels, and other environmental stresses. High wood density is positively correlated with xylem wall enforcement, which in turn reduces cavitation risk due to strong tensions during periods of drought [6] It was reported [9] that the wood density of tree species in Neotropical forests was a taxonomically conserved trait, whereby variation in wood density was mainly explained by the wood density at generic level. Several studies on wood density have documented that community-level wood density varies considerably among Neotropical forests [9]-[11] and it is considered a predictive variable in large-scale tropical biomass estimation protocols [9] [12], [13] It is reported [11] that wood density across 59 Amazonian plots and four Neotropical forests, respectively, is negatively associated with soil fertility.

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