I am interested in information about chemically extracting from wood sub- stances that give wood its color. For background, I am image analyzing tree-ring samples as a way of obtaining proxy data for wood density. Within a conifer ring, I measure low-density earlywood as high in gray value and high-density latewood as low in gray value. Thus, the empirical relationship between wood density and neutral gray value is inverse. This relationship is, however, badly affected by extraneous color variation in wood, most notably by the heartwood-sapwood color difference that is common in many conifer species. Ideally, I would like to eliminate (chemically extract?) extraneous color variation from my samples but retain earlywood-latewood color variation, which relates to wood density. I'd also like to better understand the physical, ana- tomical basis for the relationship between intra-ring wood density and color in conifor species. In other words, what makes earlywood light in color and late- wood dark in color? I suspect an answer to this question exists, but I have not been able to find it in my library research. Thanks in advance to any who reply, Paul Sheppard Lab. of Tree-Ring Research University of Arizona Tucson GRAD12@CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU
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