Case studies tagged with Quercus suber

The thickness of cork oak trees varies highly, even when they are located in the same geographical location or stand. The objective was to research how climate variables affect different trees within the same site, for which precipitation and temperature variables were considered. The response variable was the cork growth index (cgi) – the cork thickness of the first eight complete growth years were measured after boiling. The differences between trees were characterised by nine different cork thickness quantiles, from lower (thinnest cork) to higher (thickest cork).

The objective of the protocol is the adoption of a common standard for the description of pure or mixed stands with cork oaks for planning and/or management purposes. The aim is ultimately to contribute to the creation of coherent and complete information bases at the regional level, to improve cork oak forest planning, and thereby foster their development, in accordance with the indications of the Regional Forestry Law (Law no. 8/2016 art. 33) and of regional sectorial regulations on cork (Law no. 4/1994).

In order to be able to follow the evolution of cork oak dieback in the French cork-producing regions in the context of climate change, the South-East Forest Health Interregional Pole has set up since 2013 an annual health monitoring network (defoliation, tree mortality, branch mortality, etc.) of 33 permanent plots of 20 trees each. The study covers the period 2013-2019.

Cork harvesting, every 10 to 15 years depending on the region, requires trees in good phytosanitary conditions and is a potential source of stress, especially if debarking is poorly done. Hence the interest in having a tool to assess the trees phytosanitary conditions, which can be used as a decision support tool when carrying out silvicultural operations. This tool is based on a visual diagnostic method called Archi, developed by CNPF. ARCHI is based on the reading of tree crown architecture using a specific identification key referring to different architectural types related to...

The cork used in the manufacture of natural cork stoppers or technical stoppers must meet a number of conditions, including being free of certain anomalies. The use of NIRS (near infrared spectroscopy) technology has proven to be a valid technique for detecting yellow stain and corkbark, which are defects that must be avoided due to their harmful effects on the properties of the cork.

This document presents the Network of Selected Cork Oak stands of Extremadura, an initiative for the conservation and improvement of forest genetic resources for the production of cork in Extremadura. Its purpose is to promote sustainable management, taking advantage of individuals with the best characteristics for obtaining cork. The Network is described below, as well as the procedure for registering stands in it.

The aim is to provide a standard reference model to be used by public forest owners of cork oak woodlands to sell cork, both on the tree or in cork piles, through public tendering systems in Italy. The documents represent a good practice developed by the Agency Forestas on the basis of its long term experience in cork tendering systems that may be useful for harmonizing cork selling procedures across the country.  

The objective of this study is to determine the proportion of cork that micro-agglomerated and synthetic cork stoppers should contain to assure that their mechanical properties are similar to those of a natural cork stopper. The properties that characterize the mechanical behaviour of the stoppers in the corking and uncorking operations are: compression, relaxation and extraction.

Improving the competitiveness of the cork oak producers, by improving the quality of the production process and the sustainability of the cork oak forest, by introducing new innovative methods and practices applied to the various stages of the production process and commercialization of the raw material, are essential to guarantee the vitality in the sector. 

The profitability of the debarking, transportation and storage operations by promoting or increasing the efficiency of the processes along the potential value chain, with bring greater valorization of the raw material and...

Cork oak ecosystems have been experiencing a serious decline in the last decades attributed to different causes, including wildfires. After fire trees may become particularly vulnerable to forest pests, which may further affect the vigor of surviving trees and give rise to massive dispersing offspring affecting surrounding areas, but this was rarely assessed in Mediterranean oak ecosystems. Thus, the objective of this study was to assess the presence and dynamics of xylophagous insects on cork oak forests following fire in central Portugal.