Influence of former farmland on the characteristics and properties of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) tree tissue

Abstract

This paper compares the characteristics and properties of wood from trees grown on forest land with trees grown on former farmland. The first generation of the tree stand, which was artificially introduced on lands previously used for farming, was accepted as an ecosystem on the former farmland. A total of 36 trees from 12 areas were chosen for the comparisons, where six areas contained former farmland and six contained forest land. The compared tree stands differed from each other only in terms of the growth conditions, i.e., forest and former farmland soils. Selected properties and characteristics of the tree tissue, including density, bending strength, wood static compression, thickness of the cell wall, and lignin content in the dry mass, were subject to analysis. The conducted research found significant differences in the analyzed variables between the compared tree groups. The pines grown on former farmland soil were characterized by a generally poor technical wood quality, thinner tracheid walls, and lower lignin content.

How Wood Quality Can Be Shaped: Results of 70 Years of Experience

“…Apart from the intended commercial/economic procedures such as pruning, there are other factors such as genetic variability and environmental conditioning that overlap and permeate, which is known as adaptive tree growth [43,56]. Thus, pruning can have an important impact on the relationship between the features of tree tissue and the morphological structure of trees.…”