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

摘要

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 EUterritory. Wood importers have been caught declaring Siberian larch wood as being of Europeanorigin to save the costs of the inspection. Therefore, an unequivocal method has to be developed inaddition to the traditional analysis of the tree ring density to identify incorrect declarations of larchwood origin. For this purpose, 8180 and 813C analyses have been carried out to check if Siberian larchwood can be discriminated from European larch. Measurements have been carried out on bulk woodsamples, as the method has to be designed to be as simple as possible. The results show anoverlapping of the Siberian and Austrian 813C, and no overlapping for the 3180 values.