This study, in the form of a patent evaluation, which is a technique for studying the information present within and attached to patents, describes the state of the art by introducing what has been patented in relation to softwood lignin derivatives. Inventors have described and claimed, through the US9347177B2 patent, a method for the preparation of derivatives of native lignin from softwood sources having a certain aliphatic hydroxyl content. The earliest priority date of the US9347177B2 patent was May 28^th, 2009, with 69 patent families and six filled jurisdictions. Based on patent classification, the invention covered by the patent concerns the processes of treating or compounding macromolecular substances and compositions of lignin-containing materials as well as lignin and products derived therefrom. To prove the concept of this invention, recovery of lignin derivatives has been carried out from three softwood species: hybrid spruce trees, radiata pine, and loblolly pine grown in Canada, Chile, and the United States, respectively. The inventors confirmed that choosing native lignin derivatives with a specific aliphatic hydroxyl content results in a product with more consistent antioxidant activity. Furthermore, another aspect of this invention related to the use of the softwood lignin derivatives comprises incorporating the softwood lignin derivatives into polymer compositions.

The fossil record allows the inference that the intrinsic attributes engendering survival of wild forest trees originated over millions of years of natural selection following physical, chemical and biological tests. Current thinking is that tolerance of, hence survival in, ever-changing environments is a physiological attribute influenced by both synecological associations and autecological changes. However, in terms of genetics and biochemistry, the fundamental basis for survival fitness remains incompletely known.

In association with the rapid rate of global climate change, there are now increasing incidents of forest mortality. Global sustainability of healthy forests requires ongoing survival fitness of forest organisms, in particular that of trees. Over the last century, tree-improvement programs selected and crossed individual mother trees having desired traits, to produce seed orchards and clones for reforestation/afforestation and related purposes. However, selections of preferred genotypes were based on their growth performance under earlier environmental conditions, and cultivars were selected mainly on the basis of commercial attributes rather than on their ability to survive extreme events. Consequently, the possibility exists that survival fitness of preferred cultivars and their progeny has been compromised, relative to wild types. The needed research remains to be done, but a solid scientific foundation to manage future forests is clearly lacking at present. This presentation reviews the current state of knowledge about these concerns and suggests future research priorities. The limits of tolerance of trees to unpredictable extreme events can begin to be estimated by subjecting seedlings to controlled environmental tests.

The aim of the present study is to monitor the forest vegetation’s condition and detect changes occurred in the territorial disturbance of the forest cover in the area of Natural Park "Blue Stones", located in Bulgaria near to Sliven town, by the use of combinative approach of Remote Sensing’s methods and generation of different vegetation indices (NDVI, NDGI). The predominantly forest species of the plantations in the park are European Beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) and Eastern Moesian Beech (Fagus orientalis Lipsky) - also known as Oriental Beech. Tasseled Cap Orthogonal Transformation is applied to the selected satellite images, resulting in three TCT components - "brightness", "wetness" and "greenness". In the present research, on the basis of the "greenness" component from different temporal points (satellite scenes), Normalized Differential Greenness Index has been calculated which is giving more accurate and precise data on the current state of the forest vegetation for a given time period (2016-2021). A comparative analysis of the processed data obtained by the applied different methods and vegetation indices has been made. A selection the higher qualitative and more precise results was made in order to make analysis and assessment of the condition of forest vegetation on the territory of the Natural Park.

The tree volume equations for Eucalyptus plantations are essential to estimate productivity, generalize equations that consider different genotypes and water regimes with low bias, and simplify plantation management. Our study evaluated the possibility of a generalized tree volume equation for eight Eucalyptus genotypes under contrasting irrigation regimens. We evaluated a seven-year-old plantation with E. nitens, E. badjensis, E. smithii, E. camaldulensis x globulus and two varieties of low and high productivity of E. globulus and E. nitens x globulus genotypes in two contrasting irrigation regiments (summer irrigated vs. no irrigated conditions). Diameter (DBH) and total height (H) measurements were considered in tree equations (Schumacher and Hall (1933), Honer (1967) and Clutter et al. (1978)). Then, the best volume equation was selected from the adjusted coefficient of determination, mean square error, and AIC and BIC parameters. Finally, the validation was carried out with the Jackknife method. The results showed that it is possible to use a generalized tree volume equation; the genotype, irrigation regime and their interaction were not statistically significant for all equations. The best tree volume equation was Schumacher and Hall (1933), which showed the best fit and minor bias, with a little trend to underestimate volume (total and merchantable) in trees with a volume greater than 0.22 m³. These results suggest that it is possible to use a generalized tree volume equation that would simplify plantation productivity projections while maintaining a good fit and low bias.

The selection of the most suitable alternative for harvesting operations is a challenging activities which is manageable via precision forest harvesting. In this study, an approach based on a combination of GIS (Geographic Information System) and AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process), relying on geospatial data and opinion of forest engineers with a good expertise on this topic was applied in the Natural Reserve of Lamone (Latium, Italy) to select the most suitable extraction system in the oak coppice forests of the study area. The developed approach allowed for the selection among forwarder, forestry-fitted farm tractor equipped with winch and all-terrain cable yarder. The obtained results suggested that forwarder and all-terrain cable yarder were the most suitable extraction systems. The former can be applied on the major part of the study area, i.e. it was limited to forest area with high forest road density. The latter, can be applied as the most suitable solution only in areas with low soil bearing capacity and on steep terrain.

Developing forest road networks in Japan is necessary to enable more efficient and stable timber extraction from forest resources, as well as sustainable forest management, considering the perspective of public functions such as land and watershed conservation and climate change mitigation. Recently, heavy rainfall has been increasing once in 100 years, and the forest road damages will increase because of the sediments from the landslides induced by heavy rainfall. This study acquired governmental subsidized recovery costs from forest road damages over the past 19 years between 2001 and 2019 in Gunma prefecture. Then, this study analyzed correlation coefficients between return periods of rainfall intensity in relation with soil water index as well as three-layer water tanks and recovery costs. The study sites were four AMeDAS stations such as Kanna, Fujioka, Nishinomaki, and Tashiro which had relatively large governmental subsidized recovery costs in 2001, 2007, and 2019. Correlation coefficient between return period of third-layer water tank and recovery costs per forest road length was positive with the 5% significance for all data in these study sites. Correlation coefficients between return periods of rainfall intensity in relation with soil water index as well as all three-layer water tanks and recovery costs were also positive with the 1% or 5% significance in Kanna stations, especially that of the third-layer water tank was the strongest. It was implied that large forest road damages could occur due to deep rainwater penetration because correlation coefficients between water tanks and recovery costs per forest road length tended to increase according to the deeper tanks.

Aspen trees (Populus tremula L., 1753) are native to the boreal region of Siberia. These species’ fast growth and ability to regrow from root suckers mean it is promising to create carbon farms using aspen trees for an efficient atmospheric carbon sequestration.

This paper presents the findings in research focusing on studying the dynamics of aspen forests growth and condition in changing climate according to forest inventory in 1972, 1982 and 2002.

The research was conducted in aspen stands growing in the Central Siberian subtaiga forest-steppe ecoregion.

From 1982 to 2002, there was a steady trend towards increasing growing season temperature sum. At the same time, the amount of precipitation in the same season and period did not exceed the median value. With an increase in temperature sum in 1982-2002 from 1800°C to 2100°C, the average forest carbon stock increased from 0.56 to 1.48 tonnes of carbon per hectare per year. The statement is true for pure aspen forests aged 10 to 30 years. A drastic decrease in the carbon sequestration potential is observed in aspen stands from the age of 40. After 55 years, the average increase in aspen forests carbon stock levels off, and the differences become insignificant.

Along with age-related increasing biomass growth rates in aspen forests, natural and pathological dieback leads to reduction in resilience and wood loss.

Aspen is characterized by rapid early growth rates, which allows using aspen forests sequestration potential to achieve effective carbon conservation.

This contribution shows the results from the study of the behaviour of Ayous (Triplochiton scleroxylon K. Shum) wood, untreated and industrially heat-treated, with the subsequent application of a mono-component polyurethane coating. The coating was applied by brush and spray, according to the indications supplied in the technical data sheet, to verify the most effective modality. The samples were artificially aged under simulated solar irradiation to verify the behaviour over time of the protective and of the unprotected wood, untreated and heat-treated. To investigate the behaviour of the specimens, micro-hardness, wettability, wearing, colour and roughness were measured and compared before and after artificial ageing in the SolarBox chamber.

The obtained data highlighted that the coating improve the surface characteristics of Ayous wood by increasing the hydrophobicity, the homogeneity of the surfaces, the micro-hardness, and, the resistance to wearing. Concerning the colour, the effect of coating acts mainly on the untreated wood by causing a little increase of b* parameter (little yellowing of wood surface).

The ageing process under simulated solar radiation causes some relevant changes in the surface properties, generally getting worse the wood surface characteristics especially in the uncoated samples. Specifically, hydrophobicity decreases significantly in the heat-treated uncoated samples, whereas in the same samples but coated the hydrophobicity is maintained thanks to the presence of the polyurethane layer. Micro-hardness undergoes little decrease in all samples, because of ageing. The main one is observed in the control samples, i.e. untreated thermally and uncoated. The effect of coating is particularly relevant on the wearing resistance. In fact, samples with coatings are much more resistant to wearing in respect to uncoated ones and they also suffer less colour changes. This result demonstrates the good performance of the polyurethane coating and its effectiveness in the protection of wood exposed to outdoor conditions.

We have studied the dynamics of relative anomalies in the ground cover thermal regime of technogenic territories under the conditions of gold mining impact for 20 years in Central Siberia. Impact of gold deposits mining causes landscape changes and disturbances of vegetation and soil covers. This determines the change in the thermal state of the post-industrial plots for a long time, which is an important feature of ecosystem stability monitoring.

We analyzed the spectral characteristics of three post-technogenic sites, where quarries were recorded in different years. The test sites are located in the taiga zone of Central Siberia. We used free banks of satellite imagery for 2000–2020 (USGS, https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/, accessed on 21 May 2022), such as Landsat-5/7 (channels 5-4-3) and Landsat-8 (channels 6-5-4).

After using the standard calibration procedure, we evaluated and averaged the surface temperature (λ = 10.4–12.5 μm, Landsat-5,7/TM/ETM and λ = 10.6–11.19 μm, Landsat-8/OLI). We recorded the excess of temperature in disturbed areas by 70-90% relative to background (no vegetation cover in such areas, physical evaporation increases, soil moisture decreases). We analyzed the temperature dynamics in the disturbed areas in relation to background values for summer periods during 20–40 years.

We controlled the state and recovery of technogenic sites according to data on i) the initial level of thermal anomaly, ii) the rate of decrease in temperature in post-technogenic plots in the first 5–10 years, iii) the time of stabilization of recovery processes (~20–40 years), iv) the residual level of thermal anomaly (~15%).

We can assume that in most cases of post-technogenic territories, “neotechnogenic ecosystems” are formed with special thermal regimes that differ from the background ones for a long time. The type of reclamation determines the duration and significance of such changes at the level of the Siberian taiga ecosystems.

Understanding the intrinsic relationship of ecological elements to mangrove carbon sequestration is vital in promoting conservation. The study aims to quantify the blue carbon capacity of eight natural mangrove stands on the Sri Lankan coast and investigate the ecological influence on their carbon sequestration potential. We employed a combination of allometry for floral carbon and sediment core extraction for sediment carbon assessment. Diameter at breast height of mangrove stands was measured along a 10 m wide belt transect at six points in each site (n=48) and to measure edaphic influence at least three water samples by the adjoining estuary were taken. Sediment cores were extracted at the points of the survey to a depth of 45cm and subsampled to 15cm each. Floristic carbon was calculated with allometry while sediment organic carbon was measured and analyzed with the use of an elemental analyzer. Whole ecosystem carbon stocks were significantly different between the sites and different climatic zones (p<0.05) with the highest carbon content in Rekawa (1247.28.MgC ha^-1) and the lowest in Mannar (307.82.MgC.ha^-1). Mean carbon content was the highest in the intermediate zone (180.36.± .46.20.MgC.ha^-1). On average, the sediment carbon stock was 89% of the total carbon while higher proportion of the rest was aboveground biomass. Correlation analysis revealed that the ecosystem carbon stocks are highly influenced by ecological variables such as dissolved oxygen, salinity and precipitation. If removed, they could emit an equivalent (mean ± SD) of 2584.13.± .1061.23.Mg.ha^-1 of carbon dioxide. The findings from the present study will allow plans to be tailored better to the national climate change agenda and will support efforts to monitor mangrove ecosystem carbon cycles and provide a basis for the development of sustainable management programs for mangrove blue carbon Sri Lanka.