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Black spruce trees from uneven-aged, old-growth stands produce more dimensionally stable wood than trees from fire-origin even-aged stands

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Abstract

In the eastern Canadian boreal forest, long fire return intervals lead to over 60% of stands having an irregular, uneven-aged structure, which is associated with slower growth. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of stand structure on the dimensional stability of black spruce wood [Picea mariana (Mill.) B.S.P.]. Sixty trees were sampled from stands with regular and irregular structures from the North Shore region of Quebec, Canada. Nonlinear mixed-effect models were developed for each stand structure to describe the variation in two indicators of dimensional stability, the differential volumetric shrinkage ratio (GV) and the dimensional hygroexpansion coefficient (R-ratio), in small defect-free wood samples as functions of cambial age and annual ring width. GV and R-ratio were strongly related to cambial age, but there was a limited effect of ring width. After accounting for these variables, samples from stands of irregular structure had greater dimensional stability than those from stands with a regular structure, although GV and R-ratio differences were more pronounced in the upper stem compared with breast height. The fixed effects of the models explained between 44 and 60% of the variation in GV, and between 7 and 44% of the variation in R-ratio. A higher presence of mild reaction wood or lower within-ring variation in wood density in trees of layer origin from irregular stands may explain the observed differences between stand structures.

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Acknowledgements

The authors also thank Daniel Bourgault, Sylvain Auger, Luc Germain, David Lagueux, Daniel Breton, Jenny McKenzie, Emmanuel Duchateau, Erika Blackburn, Fabien Lanteigne, Louis Gauthier, and Amélie Denoncourt for their valuable assistance on this project.

Funding

Funding for this project was provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) through the ForValueNet Strategic Network on Forest Management for Value-added Products and the NSERC-Université Laval Industrial Research Chair in Silviculture and Wildlife.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Département des Sciences du Bois et de la Forêt, Faculté de foresterie et géomatique, Centre de recherche sur les matériaux renouvelables, Université Laval, Pavillon Gene-H.-Kruger, 2425 rue de la Terrasse, Québec, QC, G1V 0A6, Canada

    Luciane Paes Torquato, Roger E. Hernández & Alexis Achim

  2. Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service, Canadian Wood Fibre Centre, 1055 Du P.E.P.S. Street, P.O. Box 10380, Sainte-Foy, Québec, QC, G1V 4C7, Canada

    Isabelle Duchesne

  3. School of Forestry, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, 86011, USA

    David Auty

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  1. Luciane Paes Torquato
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Torquato, L.P., Hernández, R.E., Duchesne, I. et al. Black spruce trees from uneven-aged, old-growth stands produce more dimensionally stable wood than trees from fire-origin even-aged stands. Wood Sci Technol 55, 1457–1483 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00226-021-01314-5

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