Wood basic properties are key-traits in many forest and wood studies. Wood serves three main functions in trees: conduction of water from the roots to the leaves, mechanical support of the plant and storage of biochemicals. Knowledge of basic wood properties is essential in many forest research disciplines, from basic to applied studies. Wood is extensively used for many purposes in building, furniture, paper and cardboard, chemistry, fuel wood and many other important or marginal uses. Basic wood properties strongly influence the quality of all these products. Early knowledge of wood quality is important at all stages of forest research, forest management, logging and wood transformation. However, at the same time, measurement of basic wood properties is often tedious, time consuming and expensive. Hence, there is no doubt that more efficient, less time consuming, less expensive tools are useful for many actors of the forest research and of the forest and wood chain, from the forest to the wood industry. TOPWOOD’s objective is to contribute to the development of several key tools that will help public research laboratories and private companies involved in wood studies to increase their scientific efficiency and their profitability. The specific objective of TOPWOOD is to test and develop medium and high-throughput phenotyping measurement and analysis tools for selected basic wood properties in the laboratory and in the field. The phenotyping tools and methods of analysis developed and improved in TOPWOOD are intended to be used by the participants to investigate the genetic and environmental determinism of key wood properties involved in forest tree adaptation, as well as in wood production and wood quality for the forest and wood industries.
