Effect of growth conditions on wood density of Spanish Pinus nigra

The natural forests of Laricio Pine (Pinus nigra Subsp. salzmannii) cover in Spain an area of 353,000 ha, producing annually 310,000 m(3) of roundwood. This species is considered as the fourth, most important Spanish conifer, being its timber frequently used in construction. The natural area of distribution of Laricio pine in Spain is officially divided into ten different regions of provenance, being only four of them considered as productive. The present study on the influence of growth conditions on extracted wood basic density (EBD) is carried out on 89 P. nigra trees, sampled from the two most productive Spanish regions of provenance (R.7 and R.8) in seven different sites. Cross-sectional disks were cut at 3 m (in 89 trees) and every 3 m height (in 18 trees) from the butt up to 15 m. For assessing the pattern of radial variation of the properties, 20x20x20 mm(3) wood samples were taken radially from every cross-sectional disk. In every 20x20x20 mm(3) wood sample, age and distance to the pith of the central annual ring was recorded, together with the average growth rate. Extractive content and EBD were measured in every sample. The results lead to the conclusion that there is not a significant relationship between EBD and provenance or growth rate. On the contrary, a significant relationship has been found between EBD and site quality or cambial age. The results also demonstrate that in a tree EBD tends to diminish from the base to the top and from the pith outwards. The main result of the present study is related with the observation that for the same cambial age, annual ring width has no significant influence on EBD, confirming that its utility as a predictor of the quality of timber is highly questionable, at least if the ring curvature is not considered.