Wood chemistry used to track origin of timber

About | Contact | Mongabay on Facebook | Mongabay on Twitter | Free newsletter

SHARE:

Wood chemistry used to track origin of timber
Rhett A. Butler
December 18, 2008

A researcher is using carbon and oxygen isotopes to track the origin of timber as part of a worldwide effort to develop methods to combat illegal logging.

Dr. Akira Kagawa, a wood scientist with the Forestry & Forest Products Research Institute in Tsukuba, Japan, has developed a technique that compares the ratio of various isotopes in tree rings to pinpoint the geographic origin of timber from temperate climates. The technique capitalizes on differences in climatic parameters (temperature and precipitation) over distances — trees that grow in close proximity will show similar fluctuation of stable isotopes; trees growing at distances of 150-300 kilometers away from one another other will show differences in stable isotope fluctuation. The process builds on earlier work that used only tree ring width for determining the origin of wood.

Kagawa says the new technique is more precise, but notes that it doesn't yet work for tracking tropical timber that lack tree rings. Tropical timber is important because it is the dominant type of wood in the $10-billion-per-year illegal timber trade He says that improving current isotope analysis technique, sampling other isotopes or combining the technique with others used for determining the origin of wood (including DNA and chemical extracts) may hold the key for tropical timber.

Kagawa presented his research at the American Geophysical Union's annual meeting in San Francisco.

International Symposium of Methods to Identify Wood Species and the Origin of Timber of Southeast Asia

2010-01-07 update: Akira Kagawa and Steven W. Leavitt (2010). Stable carbon isotopes of tree rings as a tool to pinpoint the geographic origin of timber. Journal of Wood Science

CITATION:
Rhett A. Butler (December 18, 2008). Wood chemistry used to track origin of timber. http://news.mongabay.com/2008/1218-agu_kagawa_timber.html

Tags:
logging illegal logging certification forestry green environment forests

print

Environmental news index | RSS | News Feed | Twitter | Home

Advertisements:

Mongabay Store
Wildlife of Madagascar T-shirt		Bold and Dangerous - Pygmy tyrant
Love me before I'm gone - Gladiator frog		Licking this frog may make you crazy

DON'T LIKE ADS? Become a mongabay supporter

WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

RECENT FEATURES

		As Amazon deforestation falls, food production rises
		Biggest environmental news stories of 2011
		The year in review for rainforests
		Our top nature pictures of 2011

Photos

Brazil	China	Colombia
Costa Rica	Deforestation	Gabon
India	Indonesia	Kenya
Madagascar	Peru	Rainforest

ABOUT
Mongabay.com seeks to raise interest in and appreciation of wild lands and wildlife, while examining the impact of emerging trends in climate, technology, economics, and finance on conservation and development (more)

Help support mongabay.com when you buy from Amazon.com

CALENDARS

BOOKS BY MONGABAY AUTHORS

Conservation in an age of mass extinction

FREE WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

HIGH RESOLUTION PHOTOS / PRINTS

Copyright mongabay 2010

Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions generated from mongabay.com operations (server, data transfer, travel) are mitigated through an association with Anthrotect,
an organization working with Afro-indigenous and Embera communities to protect forests in Colombia's Darien region.
Anthrotect is protecting the habitat of mongabay's mascot: the scale-crested pygmy tyrant.