Conrad Schuerch State University College of Forestry Syracuse, N e w York
Forest Chemistry Its role in a forestry college
Forestry is a technology, the application of sciences to achieve practical ends, and a proper school of forestry is a college of technology. Every institute of engineering technology has found it necessary to include within its administration faculties of science in order to introduce depth, breadth, and perspective into the teaching and research functions of the more applied areas. This interplay of practice and theory is mutually beneficial, for the presence of applied departments dedicated to relatively specific objectives can make a basic science department less subject to the esoteric intellectual fashion of the moment. A balanced program of fundamental science and applied technology is an important need for forestry colle~esa t the present time. This is essentially the pattern developed in the land grant agriculture coileges of this country and its extension to the forestry schools is clearly overdue. Science has recently uncovered a wide variety of challenging problems of a long range character which are of obvious application to forestry and the forestbased industries. Probably the next decade or two will see that the solution t o these problems can alter the practice of silviculture, insect and disease control, and pulping and wood technology in a fundamental way. The solution to these problems requires the knowledge and techniques of several disciplines including chemistry, and their realistic application to forestry can probably best be studied in multidisciplinary forestry colleges and in forestry-related research institutes. The control of forest environment and growth by means of techniques derived from a knowledge of plant, fungal and insect physiology, biochemistry, and genetics is far more practicable today than ever before; and as more and more of our commercial forests are produced on plantations and tree farms, methods which are uneconomic today can become commonplace forest management tomorrow. I should like to outline briefly some fields of scientific research in which I believe there is a great need for multidisciplinary forestry colleges to be active. These are areas in which chemists and biochemists can play a significant role and in which we can train students to find their professional satisfaction solving problems broader than their own narrow specialty. First, there is the infant science that may properly be called molecular ecology, which is learning how one species or individual plant or animal can use specific Presented as part of the symposium on Education in the Field of Cellulose, Wood, and Fiber Chemistry before the Division of Cellulose, Wood, and Fiber Chemistry and the Division of Chemical Education st the 145th Meeting of the American Chemical Soriety, New York, N. Y., September, 1963.
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compounds to affect or control other species or individuals. The great power of specific insect attractants that draw male to female, female to egg laying site, or insect to food calls to our attention the tremendous potentialities of studies in molecular ecology. Already we have a few substances of known strncture, micrograms of which can be used to control the activities of a limited number of insect pest species without danger to other species or the environment. I am speaking of the gypsy moth and cockroach sex attractants that have recently been elucidated. Interactions between plant species are likewise in part chemical. The most generally known example of this kind of interaction is the use of certain compounds by the black walnut to prevent the growth of competing species. While it is not clear how this knowledge can be utilized, still one wonders whether there are not many other observations of ecological relationships which suggest an underlying chemical mechanism and that so far have not been investigated biochemically. The biochemistry of plant disease in some ways resembles chemical warfare between living organisms. Chemical differences between resistant and nonresistant plants have been demonstrated. The stmctnres of offensive wilt-producing compounds have been determined, as have those of defensive compounds responsible for rust resistance and inhibition of fungal growth. When advances in scientific knowledge like these are being made, surely forestry colleges must give thought and effort to defining the chemical environment of the forest species in more detail. In addition to a concern for soil fertility, they must consider the whole area of molecular ecology. The plant hormones, auxins, and the gibberellins certainly have long since demonstrated the potential of plant physiology and biochemistry; and forestry schools need to participate in these advances. Besides delineating the chemical environment of the forests, chemists can play a role in determining the influence of physical agents on plant life. Light and other electromagnetic radiations, temperature, radioactive energy sources, and physical agents in general act through biochemical mechanisms. It is clear that profound effects on plant life are produced by these agents; we can single out for emphasis periodic stimuli by light. When one considers the influence of electromagnetic radiation of various wavelengths in enhancing growth rates, and in controlling flowering, seed germination, and a variety of physiological responses, one wonders whether knoxm facts in this area are being effectively applied in forest genetic studies or even in hastening maturation in forest planta-
tions. However, plant responses have been measured as a function of wavelength and plotted as action spectra. These spectra have helped in the determination of structure of plant pigments which are absorbing radiant energy and activating physiological processes. Surely this exciting research introduces us to new dimensions in plant physiology, biochemistry, and organic chemistry. One unique responsibility of forestry-related institutions that is unlikely to be filled by any other agency is to study the production of wood as a source of fibrous polymer and structural material, and some effort on a fundamental level should be directed toward an improvement in the ultimate product either by biological or chemical techniques. For example, cellulose as a fiber has many useful properties, hut it is produced in conjunction with a substantial quantity of non-fibrous cell wall components that industrially are largely a nuisance. The plant cell wall is n~etabolicallyinert, and under different circumstances trees are known to produce cell walls varying widely in chemical composition without affecting plant development adversely. Such differences may be produced by climatic or physical agents or by virus infections. As a result of the variations in ratio of cell wall components, the value of the wood for fiber production can be substantially f i c t e d . It seems clear that if plants can develop with a wide range of cell wall variations, a t least in part under enzymatic and genetic control, these variations can he induced, bred, or chosen for our benefit. As a structural material, wood has many advantages; but its dimensional instability to moisture, its degradability by fungi and insects, and especially its combustibility are serious weaknesses. Whenever one attempts to alter these shortcomings or to enhance its mechanical properties by chemical treatments, one is confronted immediately with the problem of the relative impermeability of wood. Certainly a fundamental knowledge of the metabolic processes that convert the interconnecting cells of the living plant tissue into the relatively irnpervious heartwood by resin deposition, pit membrane aspiration,andtylosisformationshouldhe an area of considerablecoucern to the forest chemist interested in wood structure and the biochemist interested in physiological processes inthe forest treespecies. Ifscientists inrelated disciplines can tell us the permissible variations in these important characteristics between and with'm species, the controlled change of wood permeability by genetic or other methods may be possible. This kind of problem is unlikely to he attacked except within a multidisciplinary forestry-oriented research atmosphere. Its successful solution could fundamentally influence development of chemical wood technology. The Syracuse Progmm
This college includes divisions of resource rnanagement, biological sciences, and physical sciences, subdivided into appropriate departments. The department of forest chemistry is a unit of the physical science division. We have two functions: one, to present as a service to biological and physical science majors a core of courses in polymer chenlistly, cellulose, wood, and extractive chemistry and biochemistry, and two, to develop, direct, and administer undergraduate and graduate chemistry programs in the same areas.
Our undergraduate program follonrs closely the recommendations of the ACS for an approved chemistry major. Thus we have an independent chemistry department with its own budget. We require of all undergraduates the basic core of general, analytical, physical, and organic chemistry, mathematics through calculus, an introductory course in statistics, and a t least one year of college physics, preferably more. We are greatly aided by being on the campus of Syracuse University where most of these requirements are met. All of our undergraduates also receive one semester of a general forestry orientation course, two semesters of botany, and two of wood identification and anatomy. Social sciences are slighted, with only economics a requirement, but elective possibilities are available. The preceding core corresponds approximately to the first three years of a typical undergraduate chemistry major with necessary background in physics and mathematics and a minor in forest botany. I n addition, our undergraduates also obtain specialized chemistry courses in l i e with ACS recommendations for advancedtraining. This specialization isohtained through a concentration in biochemistry or wood and polymer chemistry. I n the first option, a student takes additional training in zoology, plant physiology, and genetics, and in his senior year cellulose chemistry and biochemistry. I n the second option he takes instead additional training in wood physics, cellulose chemistry, and polymer chemistry. Finally we include as an important part of our undergraduate program a seven credit research problem. This includes a literature survey and research work in the laboratory on some topic pertaining to the student's major interest: cellulose, polymer, terpene, or biochemistry and a fmal report or thesis. These problems are usually integrated into and are a small discrete part of current research projects. They therefore permit a close relationship between graduate students and undergraduate students and enrich the experience of both. Our graduate program is, of course, more personalized but follows a typical pattern of core courses on an advanced level in organic, physical or biochemistry and special topic offerings in polymer, cellulose, and wood extractive chemistry. The heart of the advanced degree is the dissertation research which amounts to one-half of the training beyond the bachelor's degree. The subject areas which have been or are being emphasized include the physical and organic chemistry of polymerization processes, solid state and solution properties of polymers, cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, and terpene chemistry. This has given a substantial overlap of interest with the pulp and paper department of this college and has produced a considerable interest in our graduates by the industries dealing with cellulose derivatives, dissolving pulp, rayon, cellophane, paper conversion, and polymers. Our graduate program in biochemistry is much more recent, and research has so far primarily revolved around the chemistry and biochemistry of plant phenolics and their precursors. This program is now expanding, and the research is now broader in scope. Collaborative research is growing between chemistry and wood products engineering, and we expect this will develop into a serious program of chemical wood techVolume 41, Number 4, April 1964
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nology, an area where there is a great unfilled need a t the present time. In summary, then, we believe chemistry has a necessary part to play in formtry and in the forest-based industries, not only in solving immediate problems of present practice hut also in establishing a core of pertinent fundamental knowledge on the molecular level, and in defining problems in chemical t e r n and suggesting new solutions. The long-range approach is needed to keep this important natural resource inexpensive
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and useful, and the economy based on it productive, profitable and healthy. The great impetus to professional forestry during the first fifty years of its existence in this country came from the conservation crusade. A comparable advance during forestry's second half-century will depend on the appeal of a vigorous interdisciplinary application of the basic sciences to its outstanding problems. In this development, chemistry must play a strong contributory role.
