Tree Core Analysis with X-ray Computed Tomography

Abstract

Here we show how to process tree cores with an X-ray computed tomography toolchain. Except for chemical extraction for some purposes, no further physical lab treatment is needed. The toolchain can be used for biomass estimations, for obtaining MXD/tree-ring width data as well as for obtaining quantitative wood anatomy data.

Bristlecone Pine Maximum Latewood Density as a Superior Proxy for Millennium-length Temperature Reconstructions

“…We unmounted the cores, placed them into paper straws and refluxed in a Soxhlet apparatus for 24h in an ethanol/toluene mixture, followed by a 24h hot water bath. We used the X-ray CT toolchain (De Mil & Van den Bulcke, 2023) to process the dried and conditioned cores. We scanned the cores at 15 μm approximate volume pixel (voxel) pitch (further referred to as resolution) (70 kV, 20W, 180ms, source detector distance 540 mm, source object distance 54 mm, 4250 projections per full rotation) using a helical scanning procedure (Van den Bulcke et al, 2014) with the CoreTOM scanning system (TESCAN -XRE, Ghent, Belgium).…”

“…The resulting projections were then reconstructed to 3D volumes using Octopus Reconstruction software (Vlassenbroeck et al, 2007). We then treated the 3D images with the X-CT software (www.dendrochronomics.ugent.be (De Mil & Van den Bulcke, 2023)). We first extracted 3D core volumes from the virtual sample holder (Figure 1b) and then calibrated the volume with the reference material and air hole of the sample holder (De Ridder et al, 2011).…”