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COST Action IE0601 "Wood Science for Conservation of Cultural Heritage" (www.woodculther.org) aims to improve the conservation (including study, preventive conservation and restoration) of European Wooden Cultural Heritage Objects (WCHOs), by fostering targeted research and multidisciplinary interaction between Researchers in various fields of Wood Science, Conservators of wooden artworks, other Scientists from related fields. This book of Proceedings contains most of the papers presented in the International Conference held in Florence (Italy) on 8-10 November 2007, dealing with several of the Action's themes, including structure and properties of historic wood, ageing and non-biological degradation of wood material, contributions from Wood Science to conservation issues.

Restauro --- Wood Science

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While the main challenge in intertropical and boreal regions is tackling deforestation and forest resource degradation, forests and forestry in temperate regions face what may appear to be contradictory goals: to increase atmospheric carbon capture through sequestration in biomass and soils, while providing a growing share of the resources needed to produce essential material goods and energy for human societies as well as gradually renewing forests to enable them to adapt to future climate conditions. Creating a balance between these potentially competing priorities has been the subject of intense societal and scientific debate in recent years, which has prompted us to examine all aspects of these issues in greater depth. INRAE and IGN, at the request of the French Ministries responsible for agriculture and forestry, have jointly undertaken a scientific assessment to shed light on the details of this debate, using the example of forests and the forestry & wood sectors in metropolitan France. The results of this important exercise are presented in this book.

wood, climate, CO2, sustainable development, forest

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Over the last ten years, the concept of "ecosystem services" has become an essential part of our vocabulary when talking about biodiversity. This book discusses the origins, causes and consequences of this notion; it delves into the origin and dissemination of the concept, its spread to different areas around the nation and its actual or potential implementation through instruments or policies. 

environment,biodiversity,economics,sustainable development,wood,public policy

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Trees are among the longest-living organisms. They are sensitive to extreme climatic events and document the effects of environmental changes in form of structural modifications of their tissues. These modifications represent an integrated signal of complex biological responses enforced by the environment. For example, temporal change in stem increment integrates multiple information of tree performance, and wood anatomical traits may be altered by climatic extremes or environmental stress. Recent developments in preparative tools and computational image analysis enable to quantify changes in wood anatomical features, like vessel density or vessel size. Thus, impacts on their functioning can be related to climatic forcing factors. Similarly, new developments in monitoring (cambial) phenology and mechanistic modelling are enlightening the interrelationships between environmental factors, wood formation and tree performance and mortality. Quantitative wood anatomy is a reliable indicator of drought occurrence during the growing season, and therefore has been studied intensively in recent years. The variability in wood anatomy not only alters the biological and hydraulic functioning of a tree, but may also influence the technological properties of wood, with substantial impacts in forestry. On a larger scale, alterations of sapwood and phloem area and their ratios to other functional traits provide measures to detect changes in a tree’s life functions, and increasing risk of drought-induced mortality with possible impacts on hydrological processes and species composition of plant communities. Genetic variability within and across populations is assumed to be crucial for species survival in an unpredictable future world. The magnitude of genetic variation and heritability of adaptive traits might define the ability to adapt to climate change. Is there a relation between genetic variability and resilience to climate change? Is it possible to link genetic expression and climate change to obtain deeper knowledge of functional genetics? To derive precise estimates of genetic determinism it is important to define adaptive traits in wood properties and on a whole-tree scale. Understanding the mechanisms ruling these processes is fundamental to assess the impact of extreme climate events on forest ecosystems, and to provide realistic scenarios of tree responses to changing climates. Wood is also a major carbon sink with a long-term residence, impacting the global carbon cycle. How well do we understand the link between wood growth dynamics, wood carbon allocation and the global carbon cycle? Papers contribution to this Research Topic will cover a wide range of ecosystems. However, special relevance will be given to Mediterranean-type areas. These involve coastal regions of four continents, making Mediterranean-type ecosystems extremely interesting for investigating the potential impacts of global change on growth and for studying responses of woody plants under extreme environmental conditions. For example, the ongoing trend towards warmer temperatures and reduced precipitation can increase the susceptibility to fire and pests. The EU-funded COST Action STREeSS (Studying Tree Responses to extreme Events: a SynthesiS) addresses such crucial tree biological and forest ecological issues by providing a collection of important methodological and scientific insights, about the current state of knowledge, and by opinions for future research needs.

Extreme climate events --- Tree response --- wood functional traits --- Ecophysiology --- Genetic plasticity --- Manipulation experiments --- mechanistic modeling --- forest management

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Wood composites have shown very good performance, and substantial service lives when correctly specified for the exposure risks present. Selection of an appropriate product for the job should be accompanied by decisions about the appropriate protection, whether this is by design, by preservative treatment or by wood modification techniques. This Special Issue, Advances in Wood Composites presents recent progress in enhancing and refining the performance and properties of wood composites by chemical and thermal modification and the application of smart nanomaterials, which have made them a particular area of interest for researchers. In addition, it reviews some important aspects in the field of wood composites, with particular focus on their materials, applications, and engineering and scientific advances, including solutions inspired biomimetrically by the structure of wood and wood composites. This Special Issue, with a collection of 13 original contributions, provides selected examples of recent Advances in Wood Composites

wood --- thermal modification --- mechanical properties --- dimensional stability --- color --- chemical structure --- VOCs --- alder plywood --- high-density polyethylene film --- bending strength --- modulus of elasticity in bending --- shear strength --- thickness swelling --- water absorption --- activation volume --- creep behavior --- sol-gel process --- stepped isostress method --- wood-inorganic composites --- wood adhesive --- tunnel-structured --- sepiolite --- rapid formaldehyde release --- wood plastic composite --- graphene nano-platelets --- thermal property --- mechanical property --- water-based UV curing coating --- coating amount --- surface properties --- polyurethane-acrylate --- oak (Quercus alba L.) --- bamboo --- carbothermal reduction --- ceramic --- silicon carbide --- sol–gel process --- thermal modification --- nanocompounds --- mechanical and physical properties --- cellulose --- crystallinity --- biorefinery lignin --- wood panels --- sustainable adhesives --- adhesive penetration --- particleboard properties --- formaldehyde emissions --- bamboo --- chemical modification --- dimensional stability --- dynamic thermodynamic --- acetic anhydride --- methyl methacrylate --- polymer-triticale boards --- thermoplastic polymers --- straw --- hydrophobicity --- mechanical properties --- oriented strand lumber (OSL) --- nanowollastonite --- mechanical and physical properties --- UF resin --- buckling --- WPC --- HDPE --- Southwell’s method --- finite element analysis --- Abaqus --- aquacultural --- structural analysis --- wood --- plastic --- composite --- n/a