Precious Wood Research Articles

Application of merged 1‐m and 4‐m resolution satellite data to research and management in tropical forests

Summary Until very recently there have been no digital data from satellites for studying events that occur at scales of 10–1000 m2 over large areas (100–100 000 ha). Many phenomena of interest to ecologists, such as impacts of selective logging on forest processes, occur over large extents but at local scales. Here we report results from a pilot project to evaluate through visual interpretation the potential of newly available 1‐m panchromatic and 4‐m multi‐spectral data from the IKONOS satellite, for studying forest structure, dynamics and logging impacts in logged and old‐growth tropical moist forest. The study area, the Mil Madeireira Itacoatiara Ltda site of Precious Woods Amazon, near Itacoatiara, Amazonas, Brazil, is managed using reduced‐impact logging practices to minimize environmental impacts, and thus represents a lower bound for logging impacts in tropical rain forests. The IKONOS image was georeferenced using uncorrected global positioning system (GPS) locations for 10 control trees whose crowns were clearly visible in the image. The root mean square error (RMSE) of the geometric transformation was 4 m, while the mean crown diameter of 50 randomly chosen trees in old‐growth forest was 9·4 m. The fact that the RMSE was less than half the average crown diameter implies that it will usually be possible to locate from the ground crowns that are distinct on the image, given sufficiently accurate GPS locations. IKONOS data are well suited for evaluating and monitoring logging impacts. Many impacts of logging were clearly observable in the image, including major and some minor roads, logging patios and larger logging gaps. Smaller extraction roads and logging gaps were not observable. Many individual trees were distinct on the IKONOS image, indicating that it is now feasible to conduct demographic studies of tropical rain forest canopy trees based on repeated satellite observations. Linking these remotely sensed data to ground data will require improved GPS positions, because it is currently difficult to obtain accurate GPS readings in tropical rain forest understoreys. Synthesis and applications. IKONOS 1‐m and 4‐m data were found to be useful for identifying individual trees as well as some logging management features in a tropical moist forest in central Amazonia. These data will have many applications for research and management of intervened and old‐growth tropical forests, including planning and assessment of logging activities, as well as monitoring adherence to certification criteria such as those of the Forest Stewardship Council. Rapid development of these applications will come from building on existing data on forest structure and function, and by fostering collaborations between remote sensing scientists, ecologists and natural resource managers.

To make a silk purse: The contract between reviewers/editors and authors

As professionals we are sometimes asked to examine a report, a letter. … A lucky few have even been tapped to review and edit a manuscript for Geophysics. Those tempted to think that this requires simple scanning should think again. This is a journal, an archival record; to get a manuscript ready for publication is the equivalent of cutting and polishing a gem … or refinishing an old masterpiece … or working with precious woods. … It is all about eliminating imperfections while enhancing natural attributes without altering the nature and essence of the piece.

The Nazarean Legacy

After Pompey Magnus’s conquest of the Hellenistic East in 64 B.c., theRoman administrators of Asia Occidentalis divided the Arabian peninsulainto three realms: Arabia Petraea (Rocky Arabia), which stretchedfrom Greater Syria to the Gulf of Ayala (Aqaba), and whose capital inPetra (the Rock) was carved out by the Nabateans from sandstone on theslopes of Ain Musa; Arabia Deserta (desert Arabia) with Bostra (Busra)as the commercial capital in Hawran; and Arabia Felix (happy Arabia)or Yemen with the capital city of Mariaba (Ma’rib). Arabia Petraea,despite its wilderness, played a significant role in the political life of theempire.’ Because of the natural supply of pure water in the barren land,it was a midpoint on the ancient caravan route from Hadramaut to Egyptand Syria. A variety of goods-the myrrh and frankincense of theSabaean Arabia Felix, ivory, gold, and slaves of East Africa, spices,gems, and precious wood of India- were transported via Petra andGerasa (Jerash) to Damascus, Alexandria, and Rome. In Arabia Petraea,the Prophet Yusuf was cast into a well by his brothers from which he wasfound and brought to Egypt, where he was sold. Many readers of theBible believe that Ain Musa near Petra is the spring that the ProphetMusa caused to gush forth. In the time of the Prophet Sulayman, ArabiaPetraea was populated by the semitic tribes of Edom and Moab. Duringthe rule of the Babylonian Nabuchadnezzar who sacked Jerusalem in 587B.c. and deported Judean rebels to Babylon, the Edomites established akingdom of Sela in the land of Seir. But at the end of the sixth centuryB.c., the Nabateans forced them to migrate to Idumea. Under theNabatean rule, Petra was recognized as the ancient “duty-fire” city. TheNabatean desert kingdom survived as an independent state until the ...

Japanese Precious Wood and the Paradoxes of Added Value

Japanese precious wood — meiboku — is cherished for its grain, color, and other characteristics. The value of meiboku is augmented in finding and selecting the wood; in specialized silviculture; in the aging, treatment, and fashioning of the wood; in distribution, display, and consultation; and, especially, in its integration into the design of Japanese‐style rooms. Historically, forest communities embraced a labor‐intensive tradition of meiboku silviculture and processing, but modern technology has reduced the labor required, the cost of meiboku, and, potentially, the rarity and value of the wood. In explaining paradoxes of value creation, Thorstein Veblen's institutionalism illuminates an iterative interplay between a changing culture of demand and divisions of labor, alternately traditional and rationalized, in meiboku.

Japanese Precious Wood and the Paradoxes of Added Value

Japanese Precious Wood and the Paradoxes of Added Value

Materials in Musical Instruments: Romance of Art and Science

A few years ago, I surprised my wife by asking for a guitar for Christmas. Our budget was limited in those days, so I started at the low-cost end and remember being disappointed with the tone quality of the guitar we purchased. Even with my poorly trained ear, I could tell the difference between a $50 guitar and a $100 instrument. The jump from $100 to $200 was also easily detectable. I could even make out the difference in tone quality between a $200 and a $500 guitar. One hand-crafted instrument with a $1000 price tag had a lovely tone. However, the limitations of my ear made it difficult to detect significant improvement in tone quality beyond that stage. At any rate, I realized that an instrument manufacturer would clearly not waste precious select woods on a “cigar-box” instrument. Since then, while trying to unlock the secrets of fine tone quality, the importance of materials in crafting fine musical instruments has become apparent during my investigations of various musical instruments in the laboratory.

Heart wood ratio of Betula maximowicziana at the precious wood market

Heart wood ratio of Betula maximowicziana at the precious wood market

Navigation européenne dans les Petites Antilles aux XVIe et début du XVIIe siècles. Sources documentaires, approche archéologique

For different reasons work on the history of the lesser Antilles has neglected the 125 years between the discovery by Christopher Columbus and the first English and French colonies in 1627. We shall undertake the reconstitution of this period by studying the navigation. Indeed between islands is not the boat the indispensable and only instrument for exploration, war and trade ! First we shall follow the Spanish in their discovery of the lesser Antilles, then through out the XVIth century in their slave raids and reprisals raids against Carib incursions, but also their stops for water of the annual fleet for the colonies. Sometime after the discovery, the English and the French are already present in the Caribbean but it seems they did not regularly fréquent the lesser Antilles before 1550. From this date and till the end of the century they used the islands as calls for food supplies, but also to barter some products before sailing to the Spanish settlements, the aim of the voyage. Sometime before the end of the century, the North Europeans began to look for more durable implantations on the islands and particularly in order to look for tobacco and precious woods, the beginning of the future colonisations. The Dutch appeared later, they did not look for implantations but the development of trade with Caribs.

The Changes of Woodwork Manufacture of the Cryptomeria in the Northern Akita

The so-called Akita-Sugi, the cryptomeria in the natural forests of the Akita district, were used for manufacturing special goods, with its lumber of high quality. But nowadays, decrease of the natural cryptomeria exerts an influence upon its manufacture-manufacturing meiboku (precious wood), tarumaru (wood for a cask).Moreover, the high reputation of such woodworks in the markets encourages the development of the manufacture.