Correlations between oxygen isotope ratios of wood constituents of Quercus and Pinus samples from around the world

Abstract

The oxygen isotope compositions of three wood constituents (the solvent-extractable portion, lignin and α-cellulose) were measured for samples collected from Quercus and Pinus trees around the world. Among Pinus samples all wood constituents were positively related to modelled δ¹⁸O of source water at the site, while among Quercus samples whole wood, lignin and α-cellulose showed positive relationships. The data support the hypothesis that many oxygen atoms in lignin exchanged with unenriched stem water during synthesis, rather than retaining the full isotopic signal from the molecular oxygen added during hydroxylation of the aromatic ring. The data also suggest that extraction of α-cellulose from wood samples is unnecessary for isotope studies looking at correlations with site parameters.