Wood Anatomy and Dendrochronology

🌲✨ It was a pleasure to participate in and co-organize From Forests to Heritage III together with our Slovenian team from the Department of Wood Science and Technology, University of Ljubljana (UL BF) Oddelek za lesarstvo , as well as Michael Grabner and the teams from .vienna BOKU University and Vienna. 🇸🇮🇦🇹🪵

A truly inspiring conference that brought together researchers, professionals and craftspeople working on forests, wood and wooden cultural heritage from all over the world. 🌍

Our group contributed with several presentations on wood science and dendrochronology:

📌 Comparative analysis of selected physical and mechanical properties of subfossil and recent silver fir (Abies alba) wood
📌 Dendrochronological Dating of the Roof Construction of the Franciscan Monastery in Novo Mesto (Slovenia)
📌 Dendrochronological insights into 3rd millennium BC pile dwellings of Ljubljansko barje, Slovenia

We also contributed to the organization of the Slovenian excursion program to the Ljubljana Marsh archaeological site and the Ribnica Handicraft Centre, while Prof. Maks Merela chaired one of the conference sessions.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to such a beautiful and interdisciplinary event — full of knowledge exchange, collaboration and shared passion for wood and cultural heritage. ✨

🌳📘 New publication online!

I’m happy to share our new review article published in Forests:

“Beyond Climate: A Cambium-Centred Synthesis of Anthropogenic Drivers of Wood Formation in Urban Trees” 🌆🌱

In this work, we propose a cambium-centred framework to understand how anthropogenic drivers influence wood formation in urban trees, going beyond climate alone. We explore how urbanisation, soil compaction, altered hydrology, pollution, salinity, mechanical disturbance, and other emerging stressors may affect cambial activity and xylogenesis. 🪵🔬

The article is part of the Special Issue:
Physiological, Morphological and Anatomical Traits to Abiotic Stress in Woody Plants


📄 Read the article here:
https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/17/5/595

We’re excited to share a new publication by members of our lab: “Wood of Sculptures from West and Central Africa” by Anže Zajc, Jure Žigon, Marko Frelih, and Maks Merela.

In collaboration with the Slovene Ethnographic Museum, the study investigates nine African wooden sculptures using microscopic wood identification techniques. By combining wood anatomy, light microscopy, and cultural-historical context, the authors identified several tropical wood taxa used for the sculptures, including Diospyros, Guibourtia, Millettia, Ceiba pentandra, Xylocarpus, and others.

The research highlights how wood science can contribute to the understanding, preservation, and documentation of cultural heritage objects, while also demonstrating minimally invasive sampling methods suitable for valuable museum artefacts.

Congratulations to the authors on this interdisciplinary contribution!

https://journals.uni-lj.si/les-wood/issue/view/1780

👏

New publication out! 📄✨

Our review on analytical approaches for the identification and characterization of tannins in natural matrices is now published in Critical Reviews in Analytical Chemistry.

This work, developed within EU-PoTaRCh, brings together different analytical strategies to study tannins across natural matrices and applications.

Happy to contribute as co-author to this international collaboration!

🔗https://doi.org/10.1080/10408347.2026.2633530

🌱📊 New paper out!
How does climate shape wood formation in grapevines?

In our latest study, we combined xylogenesis analysis with advanced modelling to uncover the key environmental drivers of wood formation in Vitis vinifera ‘Greco’ grown in a Mediterranean vineyard. ☀️💨💧

By tracking cambial activity and xylem development under different soil management strategies, we show how specific micro-environmental factors control each phase of wood formation — opening new perspectives for dendro-agronomy and climate-resilient viticulture. 🍇🌍

📖 Published in IAWA Journal
🔗 DOI: 10.1163/22941932-bja10211

✨ New publication ✨
Our lab contributed wood anatomy analyses to this study on h**p biomass degradation by Verticillium nonalfalfae. Proud of the teamwork behind this work! 🌱🧬

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🌲 New Article Published! 🌲

Our new paper, “Subfossil Abies alba Stems from the 5th Millennium BC”, has just been published in Les/Wood (Vol. 74, No. 2).

📖 The article presents the discovery and analysis of exceptionally preserved subfossil silver fir stems from Slovenia, dated to the 5th millennium BC. Through wood anatomy, dendrochronology, and radiocarbon dating, we reconstruct tree growth, preservation state, and environmental conditions more than 6,000 years ago.

🔬 The study demonstrates how detailed anatomical analysis and tree-ring research of fossil and subfossil wood can significantly extend species chronologies and provide valuable insights for palaeoecology and archaeology in Central Europe.

🔗 Read the full article via the link: https://doi.org/10.26614/les-wood.2025.v74n02a03

Also this here many members of our Department of Wood Science and Technology, University of Ljubljana, attended actively the 33th International conference on Wood Science and Technology. It is always a great pleasure to share our researches with you!
Oddelek za lesarstvo