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Public Library of Science, PLoS ONE, 11(10), p. e0142146, 2015

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0142146

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Wood Specific Gravity Variations and Biomass of Central African Tree Species: The Simple Choice of the Outer Wood

Journal article published in 2015 by Jean-François Bastin, Adeline Fayolle, Yegor Tarelkin, Jan Van Den Bulcke ORCID, Thales de Haulleville, Frederic Mortier, Hans Beeckman ORCID, Joris Van Acker, Adeline Serckx, Jan Bogaert, Charles De Cannière, Others
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

Wood specific gravity is a key element in tropical forest ecology. It integrates many aspects of tree mechanical properties and functioning and is an important predictor of tree biomass. Wood specific gravity varies widely among and within species and also within individual trees. Notably, contrasted patterns of radial variation of wood specific gravity have been demonstrated and related to regeneration guilds (light demanding vs. shade-bearing). However, although being repeatedly invoked as a potential source of error when estimating the biomass of trees, both intraspecific and radial variations remain little studied. In this study we characterized detailed pith-to-bark wood specific gravity profiles among contrasted species prominently contributing to the biomass of the forest, i.e., the dominant species, and we quantified the consequences of such variations on the biomass. (Résumé d'auteur)