Developing Markets for Certified Wood Products: Greening the Supply Chain for Construction Materials

A growing worldwide movement is seeking to promote the greening of the construction sector. At the design level, proponents of frameworks such as LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) seek to motivate designers and building owners to employ environmentally desirable materials. A prominent component of this approach is boosting availability of “green” building materials through programs that will certify to buyers that materials meet environmental standards. For wood products, this has resulted in several forms of “green certification” for forest management. Increasingly large areas of forest are now being certified worldwide. Yet it remains difficult for designers of green buildings, or consumers seeking green furniture, to obtain certified wood products. Many, if not most, of the logs now being harvested on green certified forest land worldwide are not reaching the store shelf with a certified label. Marketing certified wood all the way to the retail shelf has proved to be much harder than initially thought by proponents of certified products. This article explains the sources of these difficulties and outlines an approach to identifying products with high potential for marketing as certified products. Because of complex, multilevel supply chains for many wood products, support is required at all processing and distribution levels for a product to reach the retail customer with its green label. Market participants' purchase size and frequency, basis for product selection, buying influences, and price sensitivity are evaluated to identify product and market approaches likely to increase success rates for certified wood products. The article concludes with recommendations for expanding markets for green building materials.     

Pollenanalytical research in the Grisons (Switzerland)

In the first part, an overview of the history of palynological researeh in Switzerland and particularly in the Grisons is given, with a map showing all investigated areas in the Grisons. The second part deals with the significance of the pollenanalytical research in the Grisons, namely, the history of vegetation during the Late and Post Glacial, climatic fluctuations and applications in geomorphology, archaeology and forestry research. Finally, some results concerning the history of vegetation during the Late and Post Glacial are discussed.I would like to thank my colleague H. Holzhauser for his help with the drawing of the figures.     

Distribution of plant functional attributes in a managed forest in relation to neighbourhood structure

The importance of neighbourhood structure on the distribution of plant functional attributes was investigated in two managed forests in Denmark. Species composition was recorded for 325 plots of 5×5 m and species were assigned to functional groups based on vegetative attributes: (a) Raunkiaer life-form and (b) height of adult plants, and regenerative attributes: (c) mode of dispersal and (d) pollination class. The distribution of attributes was related to neighbourhood parameters that reflect the composition, distribution and diversity of nine habitat classes within a 25-m radius from the focal plot. Regression trees were used to analyse counts of attributes per plot. Best predictors were neighbourhood scores for open areas, road-side habitat, and neighbourhood diversity. The correlation between individual functional attributes and neighbourhood parameters were presented in a correlation matrix. A cluster analysis, representing a first step towards the construction of plant functional types, resulted in five groups characterised by a particular combination of functional attributes and preference of neighbourhood.     

制革污泥林业利用场水域的鳑鲏鱼外周血红细胞微核监测

制革污泥施入林地后,检测小流域地表水、土壤渗出水对鳑鲏鱼(Rhodeus sinensis)外周血红细胞微核的诱变.结果表明:在实验范围内,没有诱发鳑鲏鱼血红细胞微核率增高,制革污泥林业利用系统是安全的;但鲜制革污泥浸出水可诱发鳑鲏鱼外周血红细胞微核率增高,故制革污泥如不加任何处理而随意堆放,会对坏境造成污染.     

Effects of fine sediment inputs from a logging road on stream insect communities:a large-scale experimental approach in a Canadian headwater stream

A forest headwater stream was manipulated (logging road-crossing amended) to induce fine sediment inputs. Benthic inorganic sediment concentrations .particles 1.5–250 μm increased from a 2-year pre-disturbance average of about 800 g m^–2 to over 5000 g m^–2 that persisted for 3 years. Aquatic insect communities were examined over the 5-year study period in the manipulated and nearby reference streams. Overall, the effects of the fine sediment increases on aquatic insect communities were minimal. There were no significant effects of sedimentation on total aquatic insect abundance or biomass. An index of multivariate dispersion gave no evidence of community stress at the manipulated site. Multivariate ordination plots and time trends among univariate community metrics indicated only subtle changes in community structure. Among the univariate metrics (16 time series analyses in total), six gave evidence of a sediment impact on aquatic insect communities. Of those, the clearest indications of an effect were small reductions in diversity and richness of spring communities. These resulted from a significant decline in the proportion of spring shredders, accompanied by a significant increase in the percent Chironomidae. This large-scale experimental approach integrated the realism of a whole-stream study with the control of a manipulative study by including pre-manipulation measurements and excluding other confounding catchment disturbances. In this regard, it may provide a more realistic measure of benthic community level responses to sedimentation in streams at a magnitude associated with logging activity than many previous studies.     

Influence of Forest Management on the Species Richness and Composition of Wood-inhabiting Basidiomycetes in Swiss Forests

In order to investigate the diversity of wood-inhabiting aphyllophoroid basidiomycetes in Swiss forests, 86 plots of 50 m ² were established. They harboured a total of 3339 samples of woody debris, classified according to three categories (coarse, fine, and very fine woody debris), yielding 238 species of wood-inhabiting fungi. The selected sites cover the main forest types of Switzerland and various degrees of management intensity. A multiple linear regression analysis showed that substrate variation, i.e. differences in the quality of dead wood, including volume, age, degree of decomposition and host tree species, are the most important factors influencing diversity of wood-inhabiting fungi. In addition, a Principle Coordinate Analysis highlighted differences in the fungal communities in the different forest types. The greatest fungal species richness is found on thermophilic deciduous tree and woody shrub species. Fine and very fine woody debris, even present in intensively managed forests, often serve as important refuges for many species. Forests with a recent management intervention were found to be either species poor or species rich. Possible reasons for these differences may lay in forest size and landscape fragmentation, the distance to the nearest species pool or microclimatic factors. In Switzerland intensively managed forests harbour significantly less wood-inhabiting, aphyllophoroid fungi than non-managed or extensively managed forests. This is the case in both deciduous forests and in conifer forests. However, occasionally intensively managed forest will also harbour rare and endangered species.     

The dendroclimatic value of oak stable isotopes

Tree-ring stable oxygen and carbon isotope ratios (δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C) are an important archive for climate reconstructions. However, it remains unclear whether the polyvinyl acetate emulsion, often used for the preservation and fixation of wood samples, influences δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C signals. Further uncertainties are associated with the possible effects of geographical origin and cambial age of historical samples. Here, we present annually-resolved and absolutely-dated δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C measurements of 21 living oaks (Quercus robur and Q. petraea) from the Czech Republic. We find that the δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C signals in the extracted alpha-cellulose are not affected by polyvinyl acetate treatment. Covering the entire 20^th century and reaching until 2018 CE, our dataset reveals spatial and temporal coherency within and between the individual δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C chronologies of different oak species, sample locations, and tree ages. Highly significant (p < 0.01) Pearson’s correlation coefficients of the site-specific δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O chronologies range from 0.48–0.77 and 0.36–0.56, respectively. The isotopic inter-series correlations of Q. robur and Q. petraea from the same site are 0.75 and 0.43 for the mean δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O values, respectively. Significant (p < 0.01) correlations of 0.49 and 0.84 are found for δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O, respectively, when all measurements from all sampling locations and tree ages are included. Our study shows that non-pooled oak δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C measurements from both species, different locations, and diverse tree ages can be combined into robust isotopic chronologies for climate reconstructions.     

Evaluating the impacts of wood production and trade on bird extinction risks

Biodiversity loss can be accelerated by human consumption in regions that are far removed from habitat degradation because of economic globalization, but no study has directly quantified the effects of global trade on extinction risks at a global scale with consideration for species differences. We propose a novel biodiversity footprint index based on bird extinction risks to evaluate the effects of global wood production and trade on biodiversity. Using 536 endangered bird species threatened by wood harvesting and logging, we calculated the “quasi-extinction” probabilities, that is, the probabilities that population sizes become lower than an extinction threshold after habitat loss based on initial population sizes and forest habitat loss rates. We then used bilateral wood trade data to link the biodiversity impacts in wood exporters to wood importers. We found that if recent trends in forest cover loss continue until 2100, bird species in Brazil would be the most rapidly and heavily affected by wood production and trade, followed by those in Indonesia; these two countries alone would account for about half of all global bird extinctions. Large-scale wood importers (i.e., China, Japan, and the United States) significantly elevate overseas extinction risks and, simultaneously, reduce domestic impacts, indicating a heavy responsibility of these countries for global biodiversity loss. We also conducted a scenario analysis, which showed that the total projected number of extinct species would not decrease if each country produced the amount of wood materials necessary to meet current consumption levels. This is because bird extinction risks in tropical wood importers, such as Mexico and the Philippines, as well as Japan and China will increase if these countries increase domestic wood production. Our biodiversity footprint index is useful to identify countries whose bird species are highly affected by wood production and trade, and to quantify the role of wood trade in bird species extinctions. Additional scenario analyses are needed to establish effective patterns of wood production and consumption for bird biodiversity conservation.     

DNA遗传标记技术在林业生产中的应用

林木种子及苗木鉴别技术的准确性和可靠性是提高营林造林质量的关键环节。传统的种苗鉴别技术的局限性往往使之不能有效鉴别林木种子的品种及种源。ＤＮＡ遗传标记技术则能提供稳定、准确、可靠的种及品种特异性标记,因而成为林业生产上极具潜力的品种鉴定手段。本文综述了目前国际上ＤＮＡ遗传标记技术的研究进展,并讨论了开展我国林木种苗ＤＮＡ鉴定技术研究的若干设想。     

Predicting and mapping the spatial distribution of Chamaecyparis formosensis in central Taiwan in a GIS with species distribution models

Analyzing the relationship between species and environment is always a focal question of ecological research. In recent years species distribution models (SDMs) has been widely used to predict the spatial distribution of species. SDMs are numerical tools that combine observations and species occurrence or abundance with environmental variables to predict the spatial distribution of species across landscapes, sometimes requiring extrapolation in space and time. Chamaecyparis formosensis (Taiwan red cypress, TRCs) is a coniferous species endemic to Taiwan, where it natural grows in the central mountains at moderate to high altitudes of 800–2800 m, and most stands in the range of 1500–2150 m. It is threatened by habitat loss and over-cutting for its valuable timber. To preserve TRCs species and achieve sustainable use of biological resources, we choose TRCs as a target for the study to predict its distribution in central Taiwan.The pure forests of TRCs in the study area were mainly located in Pachsienshan (P), Shouchentashan (S) and Baigou Mountain (B) in central Taiwan, and the distribution data were originally obtained by The Third Survey of Forest Resources and Land Use in Taiwan. Elevation, slope, aspect, and three vegetation indices were derived from both SPOT-5 satellite images and DEM. GIS technique was used to overlay those factors. Discriminant analysis (DA), decision tree (DT) and maximum entropy (MAXENT), three commonly used SDMs, were applied based on above-mentioned six variables to predict the suitable habitat of TRCs, and to evaluate which the best model is in terms of accuracy and efficiency. Three experiment designs (ED1, ED2 and ED3) with different combinations of samples were used for model building and validation. The 200 target samples were collected from the site P–B, B–S and P–S for model building under ED1, ED2 and ED3 respectively, while the 100 samples were collected from the site S, P and B for model validation. All experiment designs had same 1350 background samples. The results showed that the overall accuracy and kappa coefficient of DT (96%, 0.88) was higher than that of MAXENT (91%, 0.70), and their accuracies were better than that of DA (84%, 0.58). All the three models were highly efficient in implementation of model construction and evaluation, while the DT model was difficult for generating the entire predicted map of potential habitat due to its complex conditional sentence. Vegetation indices derived from SPOT-5 satellite images could not improve model accuracy because of its insufficiency of spectral resolution and spatial resolution. High spatial resolution and spectral resolution remotely sensed imagery should be used in our future research to improve model performance and reliability.