{"id":6935,"date":"2026-05-19T14:27:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T12:27:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/?p=6935"},"modified":"2026-05-19T14:27:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T12:27:22","slug":"chemical-timber-tracing-combining-tree-genera-information-lowers-reference-data-needs-and-makes-harvest-location-identification-more-accurate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/2026\/05\/19\/chemical-timber-tracing-combining-tree-genera-information-lowers-reference-data-needs-and-makes-harvest-location-identification-more-accurate\/","title":{"rendered":"Chemical timber tracing: combining tree-genera information lowers reference data needs and makes harvest location identification more accurate"},"content":{"rendered":"<script type='text\/javascript' src='https:\/\/d1bxh8uas1mnw7.cloudfront.net\/assets\/embed.js'><\/script><p><span style=\"color: #0d5c06;font-size: 10pt\"><strong>Research paper<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/05\/26-05-19_Truszkowski-J.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-6937 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/05\/26-05-19_Truszkowski-J-300x163.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"267\" height=\"145\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/05\/26-05-19_Truszkowski-J-300x163.png 300w, https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/05\/26-05-19_Truszkowski-J-640x348.png 640w, https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/05\/26-05-19_Truszkowski-J.png 685w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 267px) 100vw, 267px\" \/><\/a>Key message\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">Chemistry-based tracing techniques are increasingly used for combating illegal timber trade, but they are currently limited by the small and fragmented reference datasets available. We introduce a model that integrates data from multiple tree genera while accounting for statistical differences between them. Our model accurately predicts the harvest location even when relevant data are unavailable in some areas, by leveraging data from other genera. Our approach could lower reference sampling costs and enable tracing in situations where new samples cannot be collected, such as during armed conflict.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Keywords<\/strong><br \/>\nTimber traceability; Stable isotopes; Trace elements; Gaussian process; Multitask learning<\/p>\n<div class='altmetric-embed' data-badge-type='donut' data-doi='10.1186\/s13595-026-01341-x'  style='float: right; ' ><\/div>\n<p><strong>Publication<\/strong><br \/>\nTruszkowski, J., Boeschoten, L., Mortier, T.\u00a0<i>et al.<\/i>\u00a0Chemical timber tracing: combining tree-genera information lowers reference data needs and makes harvest location identification more accurate.\u00a0<i>Annals of Forest Science<\/i>\u00a083, 18 (2026). <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1186\/s13595-026-01341-x\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1186\/s13595-026-01341-x<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Data availability<\/strong><br \/>\nThe datasets analyzed in the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. Source code can be accessed upon request at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/zenodo.org\/records\/16423363\">https:\/\/zenodo.org\/records\/16423363<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Handling editor<\/strong><br \/>\nJohn Lhotka<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Research paper Key message\u00a0 Chemistry-based tracing techniques are increasingly used for combating illegal timber trade, but they are currently limited by the small and fragmented reference datasets available. We introduce a model that integrates data from multiple tree genera while accounting for statistical differences between them. Our model accurately predicts the harvest location even when [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":240,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,1,109,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-type","category-non-classe","category-open-access","category-research-paper","cat-14-id","cat-1-id","cat-109-id","cat-15-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/240"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6935"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6940,"href":"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6935\/revisions\/6940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}