Control of origin of larch wood: discrimination between European (Austrian) and Siberian origin by stable isotope analysis

Most of the coniferous wood of non-European origin that is imported into the European Union (EU) has to be inspected phytosanitarily, to prevent the introduction and spread of harmful pests in EU territory. Wood importers have been caught declaring Siberian larch wood as being of European origin to save the costs of the inspection. Therefore, an unequivocal method has to be developed in addition to the traditional analysis of the tree ring density to identify incorrect declarations of larch wood origin. For this purpose, delta O-18 and delta C-13 analyses have been carried out to check if Siberian larch wood can be discriminated from European larch. Measurements have been carried out on bulk wood samples, as the method has to be designed to be as simple as possible. The results show an overlapping of the Siberian and Austrian delta C-13, and no overlapping for the delta O-18 values. Copyright (c) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.