{"id":21841,"date":"2024-04-09T04:31:05","date_gmt":"2024-04-09T04:31:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/09\/new-method-that-pinpoints-woods-origin-may-curb-illegal-timber\/"},"modified":"2024-04-09T04:31:05","modified_gmt":"2024-04-09T04:31:05","slug":"new-method-that-pinpoints-woods-origin-may-curb-illegal-timber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/09\/new-method-that-pinpoints-woods-origin-may-curb-illegal-timber\/","title":{"rendered":"New Method That Pinpoints Wood\u2019s Origin May Curb Illegal Timber"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/04\/09\/science\/09TB-timber\/09TB-timber-facebookJumbo.jpg?fit=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"New Method That Pinpoints Wood\u2019s Origin May Curb Illegal Timber\" title=\"New Method That Pinpoints Wood\u2019s Origin May Curb Illegal Timber\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Using a unique combination of old-fashioned field work and sophisticated computer modeling, scientists in Sweden have found a way to trace a single beam of lumber to the forest in Europe where it originated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The researchers said the new method, described in a recent paper in the <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41477-024-01648-5\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Nature Plants<\/a> journal, could significantly curb the sale of <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/forests.org\/conflict-timber\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Russian timber<\/a>, which is prohibited in the European Union because of the war in Ukraine. But birch, oak, pine and other types of lumber from Russia are still finding European buyers amid <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.woodworkingnetwork.com\/news\/woodworking-industry-news\/global-wood-consumption-grow-37-2050-un-reports\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">surging demand<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Last month, the novel approach was used to identify large shipments of illegal Russian lumber <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brusselstimes.com\/eu-affairs\/947366\/over-26-tonnes-of-russian-timber-entered-belgium-in-breach-of-eu-sanctions\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">in Belgium<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The new study looked at the chemical composition of 900 wood samples collected from 11 countries in Eastern Europe. The data was fed into a model powered by machine learning, which found patterns that could predict the geographic origin of the samples.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Overall, the model caught 60 percent of the samples that had been intentionally labeled with the wrong country of origin. The model could also narrow the wood\u2019s origin to a roughly 125-mile radius, a remarkable feat in a continent that\u2019s <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/data.worldbank.org\/indicator\/AG.LND.FRST.ZS?most_recent_value_desc=false\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">roughly 40 percent<\/a> covered by forest.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The method is \u201cvery, very solid from a technical point,\u201d said Naren Ramakrishnan, a data scientist at Virginia Tech who was not involved in the research.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Under the direction of Victor Deklerck, a lead author of the study, researchers with Preferred by Nature, a nonprofit based in Copenhagen, fanned out across Europe to collect tree samples by using a long, tubelike device that pulls out wood tissue. A tree is not harmed when a sample is extracted from its trunk, Dr. Deklerck said, because the rest of the organism \u201cwalls off\u201d the wounded tissue.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The samples were analyzed for the minerals they pulled in from the soil, as well as elements, like nitrogen and carbon, that they absorbed through rainfall.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The result was a \u201cchemical fingerprint\u201d for each tree sample in the study, said Dr. Deklerck, who is also the chief scientist at <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/worldforestid.org\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">World Forest ID<\/a>, a nonprofit in Washington that fights deforestation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As precise as these fingerprints were, they represented a speck of knowledge about Europe\u2019s forests; there are 87 billion trees <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.forestindustries.se\/forest-industry\/forest-management\/insights-swedish-forests-and-forestry\/#:~:text=There%20are%20around%2087%20billion,and%20on%20higher%20altitudes%20birch.\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">in Sweden alone<\/a>. Russia, the most forested country in the world, is home to 642 billion trees.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">So Jakub Truszkowski, a machine-learning expert at the University of Gothenburg, created a spatial model using the samples collected by Preferred by Nature. Powerful computer clusters allowed Dr. Truszkowski to extrapolate chemical profiles for vast expanses of forest across Eastern Europe from which no samples had been taken.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The model\u2019s ability to pinpoint a wood sample\u2019s origin varied country by country. For example, it managed to flag 82 percent of the wood originating in Russia (and disguised as originating elsewhere), but only 47 percent of samples coming from neighboring Belarus, which faces the same restrictions as Russia because of its alliance with the Kremlin in the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dr. Truszkowski said that the success rate would improve as more wood samples were collected. He also said that accurate identifications would be easier under <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/green-business.ec.europa.eu\/deforestation-regulation-implementation\/traceability_en\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">a new European Union law<\/a> stipulating that lumber producers be much more detailed in their disclosures about where they cut down trees.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt\u2019s not just the technology that matters here, but also the legislation,\u201d Dr. Truszkowski said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The lumber tests were a kind of proof of concept for the researchers, showing that it was possible for science to respond to real-world needs, and to do so in a timely manner. The same approach could help track a wide variety of foods or agricultural products, including shrimp and palm oil, that are also illegally <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.miamiherald.com\/news\/nation-world\/world\/article49727015.html\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">harvested<\/a> and traded around the world, the researchers said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThis whole framework can be applied anywhere, in principle,\u201d Dr. Truszkowski said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">More broadly, the study shows how computing advances will help researchers across disciplines make sense of huge reams of data that might otherwise prove inscrutable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe amount of data will only increase, and it is up to us to give that meaning, either in a scientific sense or in a societal sense,\u201d Dr. Deklerck said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/04\/09\/science\/conflict-timber-russia-europe.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Using a unique combination of old-fashioned field work and sophisticated computer modeling, scientists in Sweden have found a way to trace a single beam of lumber to the forest in Europe where it originated. The researchers said the new method, described in a recent paper in the Nature Plants journal, could significantly curb the sale [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21842,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/04\/09\/science\/09TB-timber\/09TB-timber-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[651,4406,7384,5944,27367,4407,27368],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21841"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21841"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21843,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21841\/revisions\/21843"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}