WOOD RESEARCH Volume 67, Number 5, 2022
Karol Tomczak, Przemysław Mania, and Arkadiusz Tomczak

Wood density and annual ring width of pedunculate oak from stands grown on former agricultural land

The main aim of this study was to determine differences in basic density and average annual ring width of pendulate oak wood collected from trees grown on former agricultural land and on forest land, using a dimensional method. The experiment was carried out in the western part of Poland, near to Poznan, which is in the central part of the European range of pedunculate oak. In our study the average basic density was 0.528 g.cm-3, and the value for former agricultural land was lower by 0.026 g.cm-3 than that for forest land. Differences in basic density values between these two land types were statistically significant. The average annual ring width in samples collected from forest land in our study was 2.48 mm, samples from former agricultural land were characterized by wider average annual rings. The results suggest that there are significant differences in quality of wood from former agricultural land and from forest. However, from view of wood quality and applications the difference is not important.

WOOD RESEARCH Volume 61, Number 3, 2016
Fedyukov Vladimir Ilyich, Saldaeva Ekaterina Yurevna, Tsvetkova Ekaterina Mikhailovna, and Chavchavadze Evgenia Savelevna

Resonance wood microstructure peculiarities

In researches there are contradictory conclusions about interconnection between macrostructural and acoustic characteristics of sounding timber. Unfortunately, there are only a few works of such kind and all of them are of sporadic nature, which give evidence of necessity to continue such researches both at the level of macrostructure and microstructure. The aim of the research is to reveal the peculiarities of sounding timber microstructure, thanks to which it combines two incompatible, at first sight, parameters: High modulus of elasticity (rigidity) and low density. As a result, sounding timber differs from ordinary one in its unique acoustic characteristics, especially in delicacy and timber of sounding. The research results were obtained through applying an electronic scanning microscope to 360 constant and temporary specimens. For this purpose, 800 timber cuts were made in transversal, radial and tangential directions of a tree stem. Besides, macerated material was used to define early and late tracheids length. In the course of the experiment the increment layers width, the number of tracheids in a radial row of early wood, the number of tracheids in a radial row of late wood, the radial and tangential diameters of early and late tracheids, the thickness of tracheids radial and tangential walls in early and late wood, the quantity of vertical resin ducts and their diameter, the height and number of plies in linear (single-row) rays, the height and number of plies in fusiform rays, the diameter of a horizontal resin duct, the quantity and diameter of rounded bordering pores on tracheid walls were studied. The research results revealed a number of differentiating characteristics of sounding spruce timber microstructure.